boxing, local company Second Wind Productions is sponsoring a night of fights tomorrow at CedarBridge Academy (fight time, 8 p.m.).

`Tough Men Bouts' is the brainchild of Leon Raynor Sr., once a top international amateur referee, and will feature 10 bouts on the card involving several well known `tough guys', including the likes of Jerome Caines, Jonathan Ingham and Freeman Smith.

It is the goal of Raynor to host a regular series of fight events, and, to this end, he and others have already planned a second card for May 26. The second instalment is set to spotlight five international bouts, one involving locally based female Teresa Perozzi. "It's a group of old timers trying to revitalise amateur boxing, with the overall hope of once again being able to send boxers to the Olympics,'' explained Leon Raynor Jr., spokesman for the organisers. "We're trying to reinvent Bermuda's past history in the sport, where Clarence Hill actually won a bronze medal at the Olympics, along with the likes of Troy Darrell and Quinn Paynter, who both went professional.

"When I say `old folk', there's a lot of people that were heavily involved in those three's success, going back to the days of PYC. It was they who laid the groundwork and we want to go back and transform that to today.'' The younger Raynor pointed to his own past, when as a boy he would travel with his father to the Pembroke Youth Centre to watch training sessions and even take a poke at the heavy bag himself on occasion.

He also highlighted the recent card put on by Teachers Rugby Club, which drew people in droves and was a raging success.

"There's a very large market for boxing events,'' continued Raynor. "The Teachers event was one of the first boxing events I had been to in four or five years and it was great.

"I used to go every night with my old man down to PYC, and I feel that boxing is a culture in Bermuda, a culture that has, sort of, been hidden.

"There's definitely a hunger, because, from parish to parish and within several clubs, people have been talking about instituting gyms and setting up programmes for boxing ... and some already exist.

"So, yes, we're attempting to build on the recent success of Teachers and Police, and the past success of PYC, the origin, in the sense that; (a) it's a good business, and; (b) there's definitely a hunger in Bermuda, and a lot of people enjoy going to watch these fights.'' Several gyms will provide contestants for the event, with those of Skipper Ingham, Forty Rego and Mannix Simmons the most prominent.

All fights are being sanctioned by the Bermuda Amateur Boxing Association.

Full card: Jeff Richardson v Marvin Babon; Muselous Moniz v Jerrau Brown; Kevin Burgess v Malike Blyden; Bruno Parker v Jomar Caines; Trace Easton v Brent Palmer; Azeem Pitcher v Dean Liburd; Yusef Richardson v Kevin Smith; Freeman Smith v John Philpott; Jonathan Ingham v Leo Richardson; Jerome Caines v Otis Ingham.