West Bay hopeful Kendall Ebanks is fighting light weight instead of light welterweight at the World Boxing Championships.

The 22-year-old is currently training in Azerbaijan ahead of next month’s competition after he was hand-picked to take part in the exclusive camp.

And after losing weight naturally he is now down to 132 lbs for the tournament.

After a 7,000 mile journey to the former Soviet Union, Kendall spent the first few days with light training while he acclimatised to the new surroundings.

He will be joined next week by fellow Cayman pugilists Jesse Bodden and Dariel Ebanks who will also be going for gold at the prestigious event.

If successful, or any of the trio manage a silver, they will automatically qualify for the London Olympics next year.

Yesterday he told iNews how the locals in the former Soviet Union are giving him and the other boxers a very warm welcome.

He said: “The country is way different. The buildings, the food, and the time are way different so that makes it pretty hard to sleep for everyone.

“The weather is actually pretty good. Its probably like 75 degrees so I just train in a track suit in the morning, and regular clothes in the afternoon when the temperature rises a little.

“The people here love boxing. Everywhere I go people want to take pictures. If you are running all the kids on the street or stores will come and run with you, which is very nice.

“The facility is great. It’s a very good gym. It’s like the one we have in Cayman but has two rings instead of one.

“I  have moved down a weight class. I’m fighting in light weight now instead of light welter. Light weight is 132. I moved down from 141.

“The competition here is stiff so there is no time to play, which is great because it keeps me sharp and on point all the time. The workouts are long.

“We do 16 round sparring, pad work, bag work etc, not including the skipping and sprints.”