BOTH Dominican Republic based Guyanese Clive ‘Wonder Kid’ Atwell and his Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) based counterpart Shawn Corbin lived up to their pre-fight hype by inflicting humiliating defeats on their respective

opponents, earning themselves World Boxing Council/Caribbean Boxing Federation (WBC/CABOFE) titles in the process last Saturday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Atwell punished T&T’s Prince Lee-Isidore for 11 rounds with crisp combinations to the head and body, before forcing referee Eon Jardine to call a halt to the proceedings at 40 seconds inside the final round, while Corbin was too good in both the technical and tactical departments for the `Big Truck’, boxing his way to a unanimous decision victory.
Also recording victories for the night, which was dubbed ‘Redemption’ by the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC), were Sharon Warde, Edmond DeClou and Dexter Marques, who all scored unanimous decision wins over Kwinda Rogers, Kelsie George and Rudolph Fraser respectively.
Having witnessed three unentertaining bouts, boxing fans who thronged the venue to witness the night’s action including Director of Sport Neil Kumar and Digicel’s Marketing Director Jacqueline James, got a treat when Atwell faced Isidore for the WBC/CABOFE Junior Welterweight title.
Atwell, who pushed his record to 8-1 with the win, used his speed and jabs to good effect during the first six rounds of the contest, hitting Isidore who suffered his first defeat at will, while they took the opportunity to trade punches during the latter stages of the third round.
At the press conference held two days earlier, Atwell commended Isidore on his impressive record, but warned him he had never fought an opponent such as him and showed him why, by using his jab to good effect to ward off the Trinidadian who was looking for a one punch knockout after round three.
Isidore ensued several punishments from Atwell as the fight progressed, even though he threw several uppercuts to good effect, using it at one time to ward off Atwell after being backed into his own corner from a series of combinations to his head and body.
At the end of four overs, Atwell led 39-37 on all three judges scorecard and four rounds later, he was still ahead 79-73, 79-73, 79-72 against a tired looking but still fighting Isidore who on several occasions, bought time by spitting out his mouth piece.
Even though he had his man to put away on several occasions, Atwell put aside his inability to do it by sending Isidore to the canvas within the first five seconds of the final stanza and when he rose on wobbly legs to beat Jardine’s eight count, Atwell delivered several unanswered combinations for the next 35 seconds, forcing Jardine to call a halt to proceedings.
That fight, which was used as a curtain raiser for the Brathwaite/Corbin encounter, certainly whetted the appetites of boxing fans, especially after seeing Isidore throw- up in his corner –clear signs of the punishment he received from the hands of Atwell.
However, an out of sorts Brathwaite, former WBC cruiserweight champion, , suffered his second successive defeat on local soil, displaying tardiness against Corbin who had earlier lost his WBC/CABOFE light heavyweight title due to inactiveness.
At times, Brathwaite’s timings with both his jabs and punches was off while Corbin used his jab to keep his man at bay, landing the occasional right and left hooks at will and with all three judges scoring the bout 39-37 after four rounds and 78-74, 78-74 and 73-79 after eight in favour of Corbin, Brathwaite knew he had to knock his man out, in order to take the title.
Even though Corbin had a point deducted for butting, it did little or nothing at all to Brathwaite’s cause, as Corbin connected with a straight left hand to the face of the USA based Guyanese, while evading the jabs that were being thrown as a lead.
After 12 rounds, the judges’ scorecard read 114-113, 116-111 and 116-111 in favour of Corbin, whose dominance of Brathwaite forced the spectators to leave the venue at the end of the 10th round.
For the second time in their professional careers, both De Clou, the national and WBC/CABOFE middleweight champion and Marques the WBC/CABOFE featherweight champion, defeated George and Fraser respectively, while Warde had a lopsided win over Rogers.