Bess grabs cruiserweight title with dramatic fourth-round TKO over Fraser
A SERIES of left-right combination of ‘wicked’ punches from Kurt Bess created a technical knock-out (TKO) victory for him over Barbados-based Cleveland Fraser and gave himself the national cruiserweight title when the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), in collaboration with the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) 14th ProAm card punched off at the Mackenzie Sports Club ground Monday night. Sad to say, a sparse crowd was on hand to witness Bess turn back his opponent’s challenge at 2m: 35 seconds of the fourth round of the encounter that was scheduled for 12, on a card that saw Osborne and Associates make their debut as professional promoters of boxing.
The night cap, however, proved the most dramatic of the night, as the 33-year-old Fraser, who was the shorter of the two and weighed in at 182 lb, seemed to have the measure of the much taller and heavier Bess, up to the fourth round, before he threw caution to the wind and was knocked down in a neutral corner.
The first three rounds saw Fraser assert himself as the aggressor, jumping on his man early with straight right leads to the face as he beat Bess to the punch while dictating the pace of the fight to take the lead on the judge’s scorecard.
It was clear that Bess was getting the feel of his opponent throughout the first three rounds, as his actions at the start of the fourth and what turned out to be the final round of the matchup proved same, even as Fraser, on his instructions from his corner, doubled up on his jabs.
Bess lured his man forward while he worked away with the jab and midway the round, he located Fraser with a right cross that sent him to the canvas and even though he rose to his feet, referee Eion Jardine gave him the mandatory eight count.
Fraser rose in the neutral corner, and even as Jardine called on the boxers to box, he was looking to his corner for instructions that seemed to be coming to him in an unknown language and with the lapse in concentration, Bess seized the moment and sent a series of combinations to the head of Fraser.
Those punches connected with force and sent Fraser into orbit, on the ‘kite flying’ night, resulting in a sensational knockout, as the Barbados-based pugilist lay sprawled on the mat in the neutral corner for over a minute and it took the medical personnel on hand over five minutes to assist him in regaining consciousness and composure.
When asked if he was worried that the fight seemed to be going in Fraser’s favour at the stage of the stoppage Bess said,”Actually I was not worried because I know it was a 12-rounder and I had to depend on my conditioning. He is a pretty good jabber, so I had to look at him properly.’
In the super middleweight contest which preceded the main bout, 24-year-old Edmond De Clou pounded his way past an ageing 42-year-old Patrick Boston, who was catching punches for four rounds and unable to match the speed and hot range of the younger De Clou who won by unanimous decision.
Linden’s Cassius Matthews returned to the ring and outpointed Shawn Pile in a super lightweight contest, while in the lone women’s bout Sharon Warde destroyed Pauline London to maintain her clean sheet against her opponent.
Both Warde and London went at each other and landed telling blows in the fight which was worth the while watching the ladies as they pounded away at each other from close range on numerous occasions, and at the end of the showdown, Warde was declared the winner by a majority decision.
In the amateur side of things, the Guyana Defence Force’s Bert Braithwaite pounded his way to a 3-0 decision over Linden’s Akeem Alexander, before Joel Hackett redeemed Linden’s pride with a 2-1 verdict over Kelvin Moore from Essequibo.
President of the GBBC, Peter Abdool, said the card was a tremendous one and he was sorry there was not a bigger response from the mining community, in terms of spectator viewership.
“It was a tremendous card. The problem is we didn’t have much of a crowd. But you had some very competitive fights. This last one between Bess and Fraser was for the cruiserweight title of Guyana. It is a coveted title and it was an extraordinary fight.
“You had good fights also in the amateur fights and excellent fights in the professional bouts. So I am pleased about the card.
“However, it is obvious what is happening in Linden Town Week has affected the card.  I think we will have to make sure that when we plan the next card there is not too much going on around Linden to affect the turnout. But we need to get Linden more involved in boxing because you have good fighters up here.”