… Wins for Williamson, Gomes, Russell and Moncrieffe

GUYANA’S World Boxing Council/Caribbean Boxing Federation (WBC/CABOFE) Dexter ‘The Kid’ Marques lived up to his pre-fight billing when he came away with a unanimous decision win over Jamaica’s Rudolph Hedge at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall last Saturday night.

Also recording wins on the night were Guyana’s Richard Williamson over his fellow countryman David Thomas, Quincy Gomes over Jamaica’s Toriano Nicholas, while Jamaica’s Kemahl Russell and Devon Moncrieffe were too good for Guyana’s Romeo Norville and Mark Austin respectively.

Marques’ jab was a potent weapon and Hedge found it very hard to counter, going down by scores of 119-110, 117-111 and 117-111 in the headline bout of the five-card event, dubbed ‘Jamaican Invasion’ and organised by the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC).
The 25-year-old Marques, started out in dominant fashion snapping the challenger’s head back with straight punches and staggered him with occasional combinations while Hedge, who vowed to put Marques away in the sixth round, looked sharp and aggressive, found it difficult to track down the champion, who remained at a distance and picked his shots to perfection.
Marques, whose win pushed his record to 14-2, jabbed his way to the leader’s position on the points table, and at the end of the eighth round, with the crowd chanting Dexter, Dexter, the scorecards read 80-74, 80-73 and 79-73 in his favour.
It was evident that Hedge needed a knockout to remove the title from Marques’ waist and during the championship rounds in which he was bleeding from a cut above his left eye, Hedge continued to throw power punches.
However, in true championship mode, Marques put any thoughts of an upset to bed when he stunned Hedge with thunderous combinations, thus putting an exclamation mark on his polished victory which was later confirmed by the judges – sending Hedge to his second defeat in as many outings in Guyana.
In the main supporting bout, Austin fought a game Moncrieffe, who signalled his intentions early from the opening bell of the first round in their eight-round contest, by using his jab well, keeping Austin at bay to come away with the win at the sound of the final bell.
Norville appeared to be aggressive against Russell, who was apparently feeling out his man in the first round, smiling when he was the recipient of a right to the head, while dishing out a few jabs that seemed to have little or no effect on Norville.
In the second round, Russell taunted Norville, at times licking out his tongue and calling on the Guyanese to step up to the plate and make a fight out of it but when Norville stepped forward to take the attack to the taller Jamaican, he was met by a vicious right hand that sent him to the canvas.
He got up, beating referee Franklin Brisport’s count, but was soon on the canvas again, this time from a straight right hand jab to the face, which he recovered from but went down again twice, after being struck by Russell.
Following his fourth knockdown, Norville’s coach James ‘Sack’ Walcott threw in the towel even as Brisport was administering the count, but the referee ignored the towel in the ring, as the bell sounded to signal the end of the round, at which point Walcott quickly commenced removing his charge’s gloves.
Gomes got the judges’ nod against Nicholas, winning via a majority decision (38-38, 39-37, 39-37) in the lightweight affair, while in the first bout of the evening which was an all-Guyanese affair, Williamson padded his record via a TKO win after the referee reckoned that Thomas was unable to continue after receiving a series of thunderous combinations.
The fight was waved off at 1m: 32secs of the fourth and final round on a night which saw sponsors for the event being Banks DIH Limited, Courts, Digicel, Fly Jamaica, Giftland OfficeMax and the Guyana Tourism Authority.

(By Calvin Roberts)