AFTER absorbing almost five rounds of punishment at the hands of Clive `The Punisher’ Atwell, Dexter `The Cobra’ Gonsalves came back strongly to register an 8thround Technical Knock-Out (TKO) victory over Atwell at the Guyana Boxing Board of Control’s (GBBC)/Next Generation Boxing card staged at the Giftland Office Max Mall on Saturday night.Gonsalves’ victory now places him in the top 20 of the World Boxing Council’s (WBC)/FECABOX ranking and earned him a place to fight the WBC’s Super Lightweight title before the end of the year.
On the same card, Imran Khan with an amateur record of 124 fights with 102 victories to his name, scored a third round knock out win against David Thomas who is still to get off the mark after Saturday’s fifth fight as a professional.
Both the Gonsalves versus Atwell and Khan versus Thomas fights were very entertaining from the vey first bell but they both ended short of the distance.

In the feature bout, Atwell was all over Gonsalves for the first five rounds, but the latter defended himself, absorbed the punishment and countered well.
After the fourth round Atwell was leading 40-36 on three of the judges score cards, but from the sixth round it was evident that Atwell was tiring and Gonsalves took advantage of this , taking the fight to his opponent who resorted to boxing/fighting .
It was in the eight round that Gonsalves caught Atwell in the neutral corner and unleashed a four punch combination with the last punch being a left dig to Atwell’s solar plexus that sent him to the canvas and in the process, apparently twisting his ankle.
Referee Eon Jardine took approximately five seconds in starting to administer the eight count and as Atwell tried to get to his feet, he wobbled forward and struggled to hold on to the ropes but fell again to the ground.
The ring doctors headed by Dr. Max Hanoman was called into the ring and after about three minutes, referee Jardine raised his hands into the air signaling the end of the fight and victory for Gonsalves by a Technical Knock-Out verdict.
This brought the crowd to their feet celebrating the victory for the new WBC/FECABOX Super lightweight title.
Making his debut with an amateur record of 124 fights with 102 victories, Imran Khan proved that he is a force to be reckoned with as he pounded out a third round knock-out win against Thomas
From the first round, Khan attacked Thomas throwing and landing punches from all directions, dominating the fight and striking Thomas at will
In the 54th second of the third round, Khan landed a one/two combination to the head and body of Thomas sending him scattering across the canvas and the referee had no other option but to halt the fight in favour of the debutant Khan.
In other results from the four-bout professional card, Keeve Allicock secured a TKO victory against Terance Adams in their four-round catch weight bout with the referee stopping the fight at two minutes 57 seconds of the third round.
In the co-feature fight of the night, a six round affair between Anson Green and Quincy Gomes, Gomes started taking the fight to his opponent from the first round.
Both boxers were exchanging combinations in the second round with Green enjoying the advantage and from then the fight took a turn but it was a stalemate thereafter and in the end, Green was adjudged the winner by a split decision

By Micael DaSilva