O’Neil paid a courtesy call on President Bharrat Jagdeo at the Office of the President, when the head of state bestowed the honour on the country’s first female world champion and country’s first boxer to win the prestigious title on local soil, to express the nation’s appreciation in a tangible way.

President Jagdeo committed to the world champion a middle-income house lot, $5 million towards constructing a house and a duty free concession for a vehicle.

In the main event of the historic “Clash in the Park” world title card at the National Park on May 29, O’Neil wrested a unanimous decision after a bruising encounter with American Kathy Rivers.

This first world title won here, materialised three years after Andrew “Sixhead” Lewis gave Guyana the country’s first world title on February 17, 2001, when he knocked out American James Page in Las Vegas to win the vacant World Boxing Association (WBA) welterweight title.

Then in 2002, Wayne “Big Truck” Braithwaite won the country’s second world title by stopping Italian Vincenzo Cantatore on October 11 in Italy

About a week later, Guyana got another world title when “Vicious” Vivian Harris put away Diosbelys Hurtado in round two to claim the WBA Junior Welterweight title in Houston, Texas, on October 19.