By Michael DaSilva

THE Guyana Defence Force (GDF), Harpy Eagles (HE), Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) and Vergenoegen (VBG) boxing gyms shared the honours when the Guyana Boxing Association’s Terrence Ali National Open Championships continued on Saturday night at the National Gymnasium.

Defending champions, GDF, chalked up two wins in the five-fight Elite category, while HE, FYF and VBG all secured one win each.

The two victories by the soldiers brought their total amount of wins to three at the conclusion of two nights of the three-night tournament. They won one of four encounters on the opening night (Friday). Harpy Eagles secured their second win from as many fights, while FYF and VBG have so far registered two wins each.

Winning for the soldiers on Saturday were Colin `Superman’ Lewis and Desmond Amsterdam.

Lewis secured a points’ decision win against VBG’s Aubrey Moore in their junior welterweight contest, while Amsterdam knocked out FYF’s Alex Murray at two minutes of the third round in their middleweight bout.

Junior Commonwealth Games’ bantamweight silver medalist, Keevin Allicock (FYF) won his bantamweight fight against GDF’s Clinton Clarke after he caused the referee to stop the contest at two minutes 21 seconds of the second round after outclassing his opponent in all departments. Allicock put on a masterful display of boxing and aggression for the almost six minutes that the fight lasted.

Emmanuel Sancho secured a win for Harpy Eagles with a split decision verdict over GDF’s Aluko Bess in their welterweight contest, while Christopher Moore (VBG) won by a split decision over Police’s Diwani Lampkin in their junior welterweight bout.

Both Christopher Moore and Sancho’s fights were very entertaining throughout and at the end of both contests, the decision could have gone either way.

  In the Christopher Moore versus Lampkin contest, both boxers used the first round to feel each other out, but Moore connected with a few one-two combinations to Lampkin’s body and head, giving him (Moore) the edge.

Round two saw Moore being a bit more aggressive and connected to his opponents’ body and head, again with combinations. From the start of round three, sensing he was behind, Lampkin upped the tempo and moved in to Moore with combinations from `Berbice to Georgetown’, but Moore did well to weather the storm, keeping his opponent at bay with crisp jabs and during the final 30 seconds, the two fighters started to mix it up.

In the Bess versus Sancho affair, Bess started throwing punches from a distance, while Sancho was stepping close to his opponent with his punches, landing quite a few to Bess’ body and head.

Bess upped the ante in the second round, going forward to Sancho who fought back but, unluckily for him (Sancho), he got tagged and was given a standing eight count. From then on, Sancho started to counter-punch and this tactic paid off for him.

From the start of the third round, Bess took the fight to Sancho who started to pick his punches and connected with one-two combinations as Bess continued to step close to his opponent who continued to counter and finished the round very strong.

Meanwhile, the finals in all weight divisions were scheduled for last night.