Fraser, De Clou and Hardy knock out opponents
… Moses defeats London on points
REIGNING World Boxing Council/Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) champions Edmond De Clou and Simeon ‘Candyman’ Hardy along with Rudolph Fraser kayoed their respective opponents last Friday night during the 21st edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) ProAm Friday Night Fights, held at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall. De Clou defeated Kelsie George of Berbice, while Hardy and Fraser stopped Mark Austin and Gardel Roberts respectively and in the feature bout, the diminutive Mandessa Moses appeared to be an invisible target to the burly Pauline London whom she defeated by a unanimous decision.
Fraser avenged his loss to the Barbados-based Roberts in their first meeting of February 2011 when he recorded a stunning 2:05secs second round TKO, after sending his man to the canvas three times before in the round, taking his record to 6-2 while Roberts slipped to 1-8.
De Clou (11-1-1) faced George, who had earlier said his opponent’s national middleweight title belonged to him and he would prove why on fight night.
Certainly and surprisingly to those present at the venue, including GBBC president Peter Abdool, 1968 Olympic bronze medallist Michael Parris and Guyana’s first world champion Andrew ‘Sixhead’ Lewis, George took the fight to his opponent.
George, whose record dropped to 0-2 with the loss, unleashed several combinations to De Clou’s body while absorbing those thrown by De Clou with ease, doing so during the first three rounds and, though he was backed into a neutral corner by the national middleweight champion in the third round, George weathered the storm like a ship in rough waters.
He bobbed and weaved at the right time, picked and executed his shots to De Clou’s head and body with perfection, verifying his remarks made earlier with regard to De Clou’s belt before complaining of pains in his right shoulder which forced him to stay in his corner at the sound of the bell for the fourth round.
Hardy became the first WBC/CABOFE champion, when he scored a superb ninth round TKO over Trinidad and Tobago-based Guyanese Iwan Azore last January and with Austin boasting proudly that he possesses the ‘iron chin’ for Hardy’s trademark ‘chin check’ punch,  not much was at stake except bragging rights.
From the outset, it was evident that Hardy, who pushed his record to 8-0 with 7 of his wins coming inside the distance, was looking to land that one punch which is thrown from either his right or left hand, to catch his opponents by surprise.
However, even though he went down more so from tiredness after enduring several combinations – some of which were unanswered – from Hardy, Austin proved his point to be the man with the ‘iron chin’ as he kept his guards high against Hardy’s barrage of punches.
During the third round, the two traded punches as if they were officials on the world renowned Wall Street Market, as Austin stood toe-to-toe with his more illustrious opponent, despite suffering a cut over his right eyelid during the round.
Despite that, he weathered Hardy’s combination of punches in the fifth round, which, like De Clou in his bout against George, had minimal effect on Austin until round six when he was backed into a corner by Hardy who threw combinations from all corners of the globe, but failed to put his man away.
During the penultimate round of the eight-round contest, a regrouped Austin backed Hardy into a corner and delivered several combinations of his own, until the CABOFE welterweight champion used light jabs to his opponents head to push him back, creating a breathing space for himself in the process.
At the start of the final round, Hardy went at Austin like a man on a mission, tagging his opponent with several combinations and from one such punch came the ‘chin check’ which found its mark on a tired-looking Austin at 25 seconds into the round, one that he found difficult to respond to this time, as the iron chin melted into oblivion and with it, Austin’s record which now reads 7-4-1.
London promised to unleash bombs on Moses, saying that she was a different kettle of fish, in comparison to the heavier opponents whom the Soesdyke resident faced before.
However, while Moses did not state how she would have won the fight, he did teach London a lesson in boxing, jabbing and moving with ease to come away with a unanimous decision as all three judges scored the fight 60-54 in her favour.
On the amateur side of things, brothers Joel and Richard Williamson, Ron Smith and Ansilla Norville recorded 3-0 victories over Shawn Michael, Dellon Charles, Romeo Norville and Keisha Arokium respectively, with the Norville/Arokium bout being a female encounter.