By ZAID MOHAMMED Tuesday, March 25 2008

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POLAND'S Karolina Lukasik, second from right, gives a thumbs up with members of her team on Sunday night at Piarco Airport. From left are Zaur Abdulga...

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KAROLINA LUKASIK has the ability to become the biggest female boxing star in Germany following the re-tirement of Regina Halmich.

Unbeaten in her nine fights to date, the Warsaw, Poland native looks to take a step forward to stardom and financial prosperity when she fights Trinidad and Tobago’s Giselle Salandy on Saturday (March 29).

The ten-rounder featuring Salandy, who is undefeated in 15 bouts will be staged at the Centre of Excellence and will have at stake a world-record eight championship belts.

The 26-year-old Lukasik and her four-man team arrived in Trinidad on Easter Sunday night from Tobago after travelling directly from Germany.

She is accompanied by her father Jerzy Lukasik, coach Conny Mittermeier; second trainer Zaur Abdulgamidov and physiotherapist/cut man Busch Christoph.

Looking physically fit and ready for her biggest fight to date, Lukasik is aiming to return to her base in Hamburg with a handful of titles which is expected to shoot her into the spotlight in her adopted homeland.

Standing 184 cms tall and weighing 69 kgs, Lukasik last fought in November who has been in training for the past three months for the Salandy clash.

Speaking on behalf of the team, Christoph, who was born in Poland but has been living in Hamburg for close to three decades said that Lukasik is taking one fight at a time.

“We have come to win. She has been training– jogging, sparring and working on her technical skill,” said Christoph.

He said there is also the possibility of Lukasik winning by a knockout but she is prepared to go the full distance banking on her excellent physical fitness.

Her height and reach are also expected to play a significant part if she is to hand Salandy her first defeat as a professional boxer and wrest the cluster of female boxing belts.

Salandy is fighting for the first time under new manager Harry Ragoonanan who has spared no detail to make the Germans feel welcome on their first visit to the Caribbean.

After their arrival in Tobago on Sunday, they were whisked to Piarco by a special Briko Air Services aircraft. Ragoonanan is executive director of Briko.

At Piarco the Germany party was treated to a welcome reception in the VIP Room of the airport where they later answered questions from the media and posed for photographs.

After they were taken to the Crowne Plaza in Port-of-Spain in a chaffeur driven limousine.

Ragoonanan, who has taken over the financial and fight affairs of Salandy is still awaiting work from the Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs concerning his application for Government assistance for the bout.

He said he was confident that the final figure will be arrived at in the coming days to ensure that the promotion, his first in the professional boxing arena, is a success.

Salandy has been preparing for the bout at a makeshift gym at the Larry Gomes Stadium in Arima. She had applied for the use of the new National Boxing Gym but was given a time that conflicted with her training schedule.

Her trainer, Hector Roca of the famous Gleason’s Gym in Brooklyn, USA is confident that she can beat the German and regain the distinction of winning the most titles in one on Saturday night.