By Andre E Baptiste

Source: www.guardian.co.tt

T&T’s lone boxer, 19-year-old Carlos Suarez will head into the ring at  10 am T&T time today, in his first bout in the Round of 32.He will compete  in the men’s lightweight division. When the draw was made, Suarez pulled 23-year-old Ferhat Pehlivan from Turkey. Pehlivan is 1.68 m (five feet six inches) tall and weighs 49 kg (110 lb). He won bronze medal at the 2008 European Amateur Championships held in Liverpool, United Kingdom. Pehlivan will have a height advantage over Suarez who is five feet two inches, which could prove to be critical. Carlos’s father, Joe, is part of the training team in London. He said yesterday that Carlos had settled in good.
“It is a great experience at these Games, seeing the worlds best and being here, knowing that you are going to compete with the world’s best and it was good to get in that camp in Cardiff, Wales. “We had a lot of good training in there, a lot of sparring and we got away from all of the negativity back in Trinidad,” said Joe. Joe said his son was confident: “We had a good training camp, every morning he was up there running. We had good nutrition and worked out during the evening and night. “It was a great camp.” He added he was happy with the opponent whom his son had drawn. “The draw is very important. You can draw the best guy the first day or you can get a weaker opposition. I am pretty happy,” stated a defiant Joe Suarez. “In terms of sparring, we spared with African boxers from Ghana and Cameroon.
“These guys were also older and stronger so he had to adjust and there were different styles of boxers as well.  “Some were rude  and crude. They fouled, they hit behind the head, so you have to get adjusted. We also sparred with one of the favourites for a medal and that was a real good technical work out.” Questioned on his son’s strength, he stated: “Carlos strength is his mind. He is a great boxer, his footwork, speed, his mental strength, he knows when to get in and get out.”  Suarez, currently lives in the United States, but became eligible to fight for T&T because his mother was born in T&T. Joe said: “I met her at Wal-Mart. I walked up to her and start rapping to her and from that day on, some 20 years ago, I saw the Trinidad beauty....” On his son’s future, he noted: “He is going to take a break after the Games. He has been at this for the past eight months and even before so he deserves a break.”