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HAYNES HEADS TO THAILAND
FOR ASIAN BOXING LEAGUE BOUT
Tuesday 9 April 2002
Accompanied by fellow Florida Alliance member Tommy Gomez, the South-East Asian Boxing League's #1 seed Terone Haynes boarded a plane at Jacksonville Airport this afternoon bound for Thailand for his next tournament bout.
His cousin Elmer Ray was there at the airport to see him off. For the first time, Ray won't be accompanying Haynes overseas for one of his bouts. The 17 year-old wasn't in a joking mood when questioned about this.
"Like I said las' week, man," he replied. "Things gettin' serious now, see? My next bout's just eight days after T's. All four o' us agreed, we gotta cut down on this flyin' round, man. Too 'xpensive, too disruptive for our preps, y'all. You know, O-Mac, he back home right now. We jus' tell 'im to go home and rest a few weeks, man. All that Manchester stuff, plus his fight last week 'gainst Stephens ... just took 'lot outta him. Stressed him, pissed him off, man. The HBF got us fightin' in New York, at the Hammerstein Ballroom. That's for Floyd, see, 'cause even though he born in NC, he been livin' in the Big Apple mos' his life. This fight jus' huge for me, see? I beat this Tony Ross dude, I still be 'head of Jimmy Young before we fight. Now, my cuz Terone, any o' y'all really think he gonna lose to this Samoan brother? Guarantee you, it be over inside o' two rounds."
Of course, some will want to dig deeper and look upon this splintering of the Florida Alliance as a sign of their coming demise. As Elmer Ray himself said last week, "Anyone sayin' that, I tell y'all right now, they ain't got no interest in this 'lliance, man. They tryin' t' be a destroyer, no doubt."
Only time will tell how long this undefeated quartet continues to support each other's endeavours in the Heavyweight Boxing Federation. For now, though, they continue to impress, with their talent, showmanship and, according to Elmer Ray's words, wiser choices in regards to their fight preparations.
Without a doubt, next week's Thailand fight card featuring Terone Haynes is already a highly-anticipated one, an event which will surely have its fair share of fireworks...
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