There are some who believe that Adrian Dodson should not be on my Mount Rushmore list of greatest Guyanese boxers.
I beg to differ.
One of the reasons proffered that Dodson should not be honoured in the Stabroek Sports’ Boxing’s Hall of Fame is because he switched allegiance.
Dodson was born September 20, 1970 in Guyana and is a two-time Olympian representing Guyana at the Summer Olympic Games in 1988 and Great Britain in 1992.
Because he refused to fight for Guyana opting to represent Britain at the Barcelona Olympic Games is one of the reasons why boxing aficionados argue that Dodson should not be honoured.
Indeed, apart from that solitary excursion at the 1988 Olympic Games, Dodson has never represented Guyana, or even Canada, where he resided for a while. Britain was his choice of home after a sting in the US where he teamed up with former US Olympian and former World welterweight champion Mark Breland.
But there’s more to that story.
In 1988, the then Guyana Amateur Boxing Association had Dodson come home for trials to assist them in selecting their Olympic medal hopefuls.
In what seemed a strange move at the time he was scheduled to fight twice in one night in the junior welterweight division packed with contenders for the one spot.
In the first encounter he knocked out the late great Andrew Murray Jr., in the first round.
Later he fought and defeated Murray’s nemesis Pascal David on points in the last bout of the night at Camp Ayanganna.
He was subsequently selected on the team to the Seoul Olympic Games where he lost in controversial fashion in the quarter finals to West German Reiner Gies.
“At the end he pulled my head down on the blind side of the referee and I got penalized,” Dodson was quoted as saying later.
He was so upset that the then Guyana management did not protest the result that he vowed never to represent Guyana again.
Sections of the crowd that booed the decision were obviously of the impression that Dodson was robbed.
The 1988 Olympic Games boxing event will be remembered for two reasons, the boycott of some countries including powerhouses Cuba and the officiating that resulted in defeats to some boxers who had clearly won most notably Roy Jones, who lost 2-3 to Korean Pak Si Hun in the final in what was clearly a hometown decision.
Dodson’s boxing pedigree comes from both sides of his family.
His father is Carle Carew who trained middleweight boxer Kamal Russell of Jamaica when he won the Contender Series in Jamaica.
Dodson’s mother is Lennox Blackmore’s sister whom his father married making Lennox his uncle.
Olympians and brothers Dillon and Gordon Carew are his cousins.
Dillon and Dodson fought at the same Olympic Games in 1992 but in different divisions and for different countries.
It was Blackmore that was the young Dodson’s idol growing up.
‘I watched him hit the punch bag and I went home, got a plastic bag, and filled it up with sand. But I kept popping it open when I hit it, so Lennox invited me to the gym, and from there I became his kind of mascot,’ he told The Independent newspaper.
After he turned professional his first fight was against Chris Mulcahy at York Hall, Bethnal Green, and he won by a TKO.
He then racked up an 18-fight win-streak on the way defeating opponents such as former world champion Lloyd Honeyghan whom he stopped in three rounds on February 25 1995.
He also won the WBO Inter Continental light middleweight title on October 7 1995 knocking out Hughes Daigneault in four rounds.
He suffered his first defeat on December 19 1987 when he lost to Ronald `Winky Wright’ by a TKO in round six for the WBO super middleweight title. Dodson won the vacant IBO World title defeating Paul Jones kayo round three March 3, 2001 for the super middleweight title. He retired in 2004 with a record of 31 fights, 25 wins (17 kayos) and six losses.
