By Michael DaSilva

GUYANA’S Elton `The Bully’ Dharry secured a fifth round Technical KnockOut win against Venezuela’s Felif Machado, while Dexter `The Kid’ Marques registered a unanimous points decision victory over another Venezuelan, Freddy Baleno when the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) staged its `Hostile Territory Pro/Am card at the Giftland Mall, Pattensen, East Coast Demerara on Saturday night.The victories for the two Guyanese have secured them Commonwealth title shots and these championship bouts will be held here in Guyana on May 21.
In their 10-round bantamweight contest, Machado failed to answer the bell for the start of the fifth round after being `bullied’ by Dharry during the first four rounds of their bantamweight contest.
Baleno, on the other hand, carried Marques the full 10-round distance before the Guyanese was adjudged the winner.
According to GBBC’s president Peter Abdool, the two locals had to emerge victorious in their respective bouts in order to secure Commonwealth title shots.

Abdool further pointed out that the title fights will be staged in Guyana on May 21 and will be televised live around the world.
The GBBC president however stopped short of naming the venue for the card but the Giftland Mall is the likely venue.

In the night’s feature bout, Machado, a southpaw boxer, started off feeling out his opponent who was the aggressor and immediately took the fight to the Venezuelan, connecting with a few straight rights.

From the start of the second, Dharry, sensing he had the better of his opponent, went into another gear and caught Machado with a few left/right combinations, sending him on the retreat. Dharry pressed forward and caught his opponent with four solid straight rights to his jaw and this seemed to have taken a toll on the Venezuelan as he tried desperately to evade further punishment, but Dharry, the New York based Guyanese kept the pressure on.

In round three, Machado, with a record of 40 fights, 26 wins, 13 losses and one draw, continued running from the powerful shots from Dharry, but the latter, who up to Saturday night had fought 25 times as a professional, winning 19, losing five and drawing one, started to cut off the ring and in the process landed several shots on Machado. Most of them were to his jaw and at the conclusion of that round, Machado was seen complaining to his handlers about his jaw.

In the fourth round, Machado was caught with two more straight rights to his jaw and like the previous rounds went on his `bicycle’ but Dharry would have none of that and pressured his opponent into the blue corner (Dharry’s) and connected with a series of combinations.

When the bell sounded to end the round, Machado walked back to his corner grinching and never came out for the fifth round, giving Dharry a technical knock-out win.

In the main supporting bout, Marques, a former CABOFE champion, started off taking the fight to his opponent who appeared cautious, but who threw a few overhand rights which went wide of its mark.
Rounds two and three were similar as Marques landed with a few punches that were by far too light to have any effect on Baleno.

Marques however caught his opponent with a straight right in the fourth round, sending Baleno to the canvas for the eight count.

Rounds five to eight saw Marques throwing a barrage of punches that landed on their target, but Baleno kept stepping forward, looking for the haymaker that could end the fight, but it was never there as the Guyanese, realizing that he was ahead on points kept out of danger’s way.

Baleno continued to press forward for the remainder of the fight but Marques, on most occasions was out of range.
Eventually, Marques was declared winner by a unanimous decision.

In other results from the professional segment, Anson Green secured a unanimous decision win against Kishawn Simon in their four-round welterweight contest; Quincy Gomes gained a split decision win over Imran Khan in their six-round lightweight contest; Revlon Lake was adjudged winner by a split decision over Barbados’ Miguel Antoine in their eight-rounder in their welterweight return contest and in the female category, Mandsessa Moses scored a unanimous decision win against Ansilla Norville in a four-round bantamweight bout.

In the amateur segment, Jason Phillips of Forgotten Youth Foundation, registered a surprise unanimous points win against the much talked about Nandkumar Singh of the Republican Gym in a junior welterweight contest and Diwani Lampkin also registered a unanimous decision win against Clairmont Gibson in a lightweight match-up.

There was an exhibition bout involving Guyana’s two Olympic hopefuls in Dennis Thom and Desmond Amsterdam so there was no decision.