By: Ken Hissner
Sun City is one of the world’s poorest, crime and disease ridden places in the world. It’s a sprawling shanty town on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Hope seems to have no place in this wretched, forbidden area of the Earth. Out of this comes Evens Pierre who has worked his way up to the No. 1 contender for the title WBA champion Jorge Linares now holds at lightweight.
Pierre is 29-1 (19), at 33 years of age. He goes by the nickname “The Sun City Kid”. He is promoted by Jacques Deschamps a businessman of French extraction who has put time and money into the career of Pierre because Pierre is a role model. His hope is to have Pierre fight Linares for the title.
Pierre goes to Evangelical groups to speak against drugs and crime. He buys food that he sends to Sun City. He plans to open a boxing school. If Deschamps is able to have Pierre fight in Haiti, it will be a momentous event probably held at the national soccer stadium that can probably hold 20,000 people. The poor people in Haiti have very little to cheer about and having Pierre fight for a world title would make that unlucky country proud. “Even if I make a lot of money I will never leave Sun City,” said Pierre.
Pierre holds the WBA Fedelatin Lightweight title that he won stopping Nicaraguan Rene Gonzalez, 31-6-1, back in November of 2014 for the second time. In his lone fight in May of 2015 he defended that title defeating Jesus Cruz Biblano, 15-9, of Mexico, by an 11 round decision. In 2016 he defended that title twice. In April he defeated Tomas Mendez, 21-6, of the Dominican Republic and in November in his biggest win he defeated former WBA & IBF champion Juan Carlos Salgado, 26-6-1, of Mexico. In March of 2017 he stopped Alfonso Perez, 12-8, of Venezuela, in 8 rounds in a non-title bout. In his most recent fight in October he defended the title and knocked out Jesus Laguna, 21-10-2, of Mexico in five rounds.
Pierre’s first twenty-four fights were in Panama up until the Gonzalez fight at the Caribe Convention Center in Petionville, Port-au-Prince, where his last six fights have taken place.
Linares, 43-3 (27) is from Venezuela but resides in Japan and has defended his WBA title he won in September of 2016 twice. He lost in his first attempt in 2011 for the WBC title but won that vacant title in 2014 in his last appearance in Japan. He defended it twice and gave it up to win the WBA title. Three of his title fight have been in the UK, one in Venezuela and the last at the Forum in Inglewood, CA, defeating the now No. 3 contender Luke Campbell of the UK. Linares held the same title that Pierre now holds when he fought for the world title.
Pierre’s only loss was in his thirteenth fight losing to Rosano Lawrence, 12-9-1, of Panama, in April of 2010, due to the fact the referee penalized him three points. He reversed that loss three fights later stopping Lawrence in six rounds. He is on a seventeen fight win streak since his only loss. He won the WBA Fedelatin title back in July of 2010 just prior to the re-match with Lawrence defeating Augusto Pinilla, 14-3-1.
Pierre is not only a No. 1 contender but an example how someone from one of the poorest countries in the world can make something out of himself and be a role model on top of it. With his promoter Deschamps backing him he should be fighting for the WBA world title in 2018. The only question is “where?”