To mark its 10th anniversary, Gran Kaz, an entertainment company in Seychelles that has a casino, bars and grills and an art gallery, will host an international boxing tournament, featuring some of Seychelles' top boxers alongside a team from Russia on Friday starting 6 pm local time.

The tournament will take place at Gran Kaz Bel Ombre, and Seychelles will have a team of eight Seychellois boxers who will fight against eight boxers from Rostov-on-Don City from Russia.

Aside from the eight international  bouts, there will be three additional exhibition fights featuring Seychellois boxers.

"The event not only marks the beginning of a series of activities that Gran Kaz will be hosting to mark our 10th anniversary, but it also highlights our ongoing partnership with the Seychelles Boxing Federation, which began a little over two years ago," said the public relations manager, Shama Amesbury, on Tuesday.

Gran Kaz is a big supporter of local boxing and has sponsored several local competitions and brought in a new boxing ring and other equipment to help with the development of the sport locally.

Amesbury said, "We are extremely excited to collaborate with them on this International Boxing Competition, which serves as the perfect kick-off to our anniversary celebrations."

The chairman of the Seychelles Boxing Federation (SBF), Jacques Bonne, said that Russia has very good boxers, who have trained at a high level, but the local boxers are well prepared and ready.

"The public can expect to see some very good bouts and a very show from our local boxers and our opponents," he added.  

The eight boxers who will feature for Seychelles include Kryan Laporte (60kg), Eric Mussard (67kg), Jovanie Bouzin (71kg), Joshua Cousin (75kg), Jade Micock (71kg), Dasheil Fanchette (80kg), Keddy Agnes (+92kg) and Ricardo Jouanneau (60kg).

There are five other boxers who will compete in the exhibition matches, and they are Sebastiano Pirani, Mohamed Williams, Emery Molle, Romano Moustache, and Wes Jean Charles.

The competition is being organised through a partnership between Gran Kaz, the Seychelles Boxing Federation, the Ministry for Youth and Sports and the Russian Embassy in Seychelles.

The principal secretary for Sports, Ralph Jean-Louis said the Ministry wants to return boxing to its glory days of the 1980s.

"This is why we are pushing on several fronts, not only by bringing boxers to Seychelles, but if you remember, last year we had four boxers who went to train in Russia, and two coaches who benefitted with training, so they can better prepare our boxers," said Jean-Louis.

He added that the Ministry wants to send boxers to Russia to train for a year so they can develop and represent Seychelles at the Olympic Games. Seychelles, an archipelago in the western Indian Ocean, has never won a gold medal at the Olympic Games.