THE Guyana Defence Force (GDF) dominated Friday’s opening night of the Guyana Boxing Association’s (GBA) Lennox Blackmoore Championships which concludes tonight at the National Gymnasium.

Of the seven bouts on Friday night’s card, GDF won six, putting them on stream to make a successful defence of their championship title.

The most interesting bout of the opening night was probably the lightweight contest between Gordon Green (GDF) and Harpy Eagles’ (HE) Roy Samuels.

The bout started off with Green stalking his opponent and landing some telling punches.

But the shorter of the two, Samuels, retaliated with some solid punches, sending Green on the retreat for a few seconds before changing gear and launching an assault that saw punches from all angles connect with frequency.

In round two, both boxers stood toe to toe exchanging combinations with the soldier enjoying the better of the exchange due to his height and reach but Samuels kept close tabs on his opponent.

In round three, both fighters came out looking to end the contest early, slugging at each other and Samuels looked the stronger of the two and attacked relentlessly.

However, Green strung together one-two combinations and earned a split-decision verdict.

In the opening fight of the night, GDF’s Albert Thomas secured a unanimous points-decision victory over his gym mate Kevin Isaacs in their bantamweight contest.

In other lightweight contests: Jamal Eastman of Rose Hall Town Jammers forced the referee, Romona Agard, to halt proceedings in his fight against GDF’s Mark Bradford at one minute 12 seconds of the first round.

Andrew Griffith (GDF) had his fight stopped against Rose Hall Jammers’ Kellon Williams at 58 secs of the second round. The solider was victorious.

In the welterweight division, the referee was forced to stop the contest between Jamal Crawford (GDF) and Stephon Edwards at two minutes three seconds of the second round in Crawford’s favour. In the other welterweight bout, Quincy Boyce (GDF) forced the referee to stop his contest against Republican’s Denzil Adams at one minute 58 seconds of the first round.

The final fight of the night was a middleweight contest between two soldiers and it was a brawl, but in the end, Royden Grant came out on top over his team mate, Corlette Greenidge. The referee stopped the contest at two minutes eight seconds of the second round.

The final in all the weight divisions are scheduled for tonight at the same venue beginning at 19:30hrs.

The championships is being sponsored in part by Khal San PR Inc.