Jones stops Fraser to retain title
NATIONAL light heavyweight champion Kwesi ‘Lightning Assassin’ Jones confirmed his words that Barbados-based Guyanese was no threat to his title, when he scored a convincing ninth round technical knockout victory at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall last Friday night.
The two met in the feature bout in the 17th Edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), in collaboration with the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA)-organised ProAm Friday Night Fights in the presence of a fair-size but appreciative crowd. Also in winners’ row were Pauline London, Ray Sandiford and Revlon Lake who all got decision victories over Veronica Blackman, Gordel Roberts and Cecil Smith respectively but as was anticipated, the title fight drew the attention of those in attendance, including Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) bantamweight champion Shaundell ‘Mystery Lady’ Alfred.
The 36-year-old Fraser, who lost out in his bid to capture the WBC/CABOFE heavyweight title when he faced Kurt Bess four months ago in Linden, started impressively by employing the jab from both hands to keep the 26-year-old champion at bay.
He kept that tempo up for the next five rounds, even though Jones got in a few combinations of his own to the body, which was a rare feat as he found it difficult to get past Fraser’s jab, while Fraser was content on playing the holding game whenever his opponent got close.
Fraser began to show signs of tiredness during the seventh round even though he landed several combinations to the body of Jones who displayed comical moves, duplicating the kung fu character ‘Drunken Master’ on numerous occasions to his opponent, even beckoning him to bring the fight to him.
A tiring Fraser faced a re-energised Jones at the start of the eighth round and this time his holding on was more for survival than anything else, as Jones, who realised he was behind on the judge’s scorecard, peppered his body with unanswered combinations.
No one had anticipated the ninth round would have been the final one, based on Fraser’s action at the start of same, where he reverted to the jab for the first 30 seconds  until he got a rush of blood and advanced to his opponent.
That was his lone tactical mistake throughout the encounter and he was met with several combinations from Jones which were followed by a wicked uppercut from within a clinch that had him seeking comfort on the canvas at 1:26 seconds of the round while referee Franklyn Brisport administered the count.
According to many who had witnessed the devastating uppercut, the referee could have counted to one million and Fraser, who eventually rose on wobbly legs and in a dazed condition, would not have responded.
In fact, the punch had such an effect on his brain that he began to show signs of swelling under the left jaw while he sought refuge in Jones’ corner instead of his own a perfect example of the old adage: Any port for a storm.
Earlier in the night, both Smith and Roberts proved to be no match for Lake the current junior welterweight champion and Sandiford, as their opponents maintained their word in teaching them a boxing lesson on their way to securing victory by a unanimous decision.
In their first two encounters earlier this year, Blackman walked away with the victory by a majority decision on both occasions and looked set to make it three in a row last Friday night, especially after she forced London to take backward steps within the first 90 seconds of the first round.
The second and third round were: a ‘you knock me, I knock you’ affair, as both boxers were content on trading punches and even though Blackman looked as though she had the upper hand in the final round, the judges saw it differently and awarded the fight to London via a split decision.
In the amateur segment, Akeem Daniels recorded a points decision over Romel Rowley, while the referee stopped the other three contests in the first and third rounds in favour of Marlon Daniels, Eon Bancroft and Imran ‘Magic’ Khan over Clairmonte Gibson, Kelsie George and Richard Williamson.