Local boxers put on good show as tournament gets underway

By Michael DaSilva
LOCAL amateur boxers put on a good show as the Caribbean Development Boxing Tournament dubbed `Back to the Future’ got underway on Thursday evening at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall with 13 participating countries.From the first contest on the night’s card which started after schedule, Guyana’s Jamal Eastman started winning ways for the locals as he forced the referee to stop his bantamweight contest against Grenada’s Nailon Cyrus at two minutes 11 seconds of the first round in a bout of the Junior Category.
Eastman’s team mate Dewani Lampkin followed up with a unanimous points’ victory over St. Lucia’s Noilohan Ferreri in a lightweight contest in the Youth Category.
However, it was not smooth sailing for the locals as Clinton Graham suffered a unanimous points’ loss to Jamaica’s Nico Yeyo in a welterweight contest of the Elite Category.
Later in the evening, Dennis Thomas continued the winning streak for the local boxers with a unanimous points decision win against Arthur L’Oangelier of St. Lucia, and Joel Williamson crowned off Guyana’s dominance with a points decision victory over Trinidad and Tobago’s Christopher DeFreitas in a Lightweight contest b in the Elite Category.
Starting the night and tournament on a winning note for Guyana, Eastman stormed his opponent from the start of the round and threw punches from all angles connecting with several combinations.
This forced the neutral referee from Trinidad and Tobago to issue the first of three eight-counts in the round.
On resumption, Eastman, realising that he had his opponent under his control, stormed Cyrus once again and the referee issued a second standing eight-count.
Cyrus at this point seemed dazed and Eastman capitalised on this, and once again a next barrage of combinations and the referee had no other alternative but to call a halt to the one-sided affair.
In the Lampkin versus Ferreri contest, the southpaw Lampkin followed Eastman’s style of fighting by taking the fight to his opponent from the first round, but Ferreri went on the defensive and started to counter-attack nicely and scored a few points.
Round two saw the St. Lucian looking more purposeful, connecting with one-two combinations to the body and head of the Guyanese.
However, in the third round, Lampkin started to pick his punches and this went in his favour for a while until Ferreri, realising that he was behind on points started to go after Lampkin and the two exchanged several combinations with Lampkin getting the better of the exchanges and in the end scored a unanimous points’ decision.
In the Graham versus Yeyo affair, both boxers went at each other exchanging punches from the start of the first round and Graham looked the more polished of the two, but the Jamaican continued to take the fight to Graham who seemed content with countering.
In the second round, Graham showed more aggression from the start and started to use the ring to good advantage, jabbing and moving with the occasional one-two combinations.
From the start of the final round, Yeyo came out swinging from all angles, connecting to his target on a few occasions.
Graham then changed gears and went into an attacking mode before reversing to his boxing style, jabbing and moving and in the end Yeyo was awarded the win by a split decision which did not go down well with the small but partisan home crowd.
In other results, Jean Paul Cooper of Trinidad and Tobago got a unanimous points’ decision win against The Bahamas’ Tyrone Oliver in a Light Welterweight contest in the Elite category; Lyndell Marcelloin of St. Lucia won his welterweight contest by a split decision against Jamal Edmund of Barbados in the Elite Category.
In the same category and weight division, Hendrik Farlot of French Guiana also scored a split decision win against Charles Leatham of Dominica.