Soldiers overpower Prisons to retain national intermediate title
… RHJ’s Julius Kesney named Best Boxer

By Michael DaSilva
BOXERS from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) overpowered their arch-rivals Guyana Prison Service (Republican Gym) to retain the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA)/Lennox Blackmoore National Intermediate champion gym title when the curtain came down on the three-night championships on Sunday at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue.

Going into Sunday night’s finals, the Army had 15 representatives in all 10 weight divisions that were contested and despite having to settle for the runner-up places in four of the divisions, it was evident before the start of the night’s proceedings that the soldiers would successfully defend the champion gym title, as six of the 10 weight divisions were all-GDF affairs.
Prior to the start of the championships, the Republicans had issued a strong warning to the soldiers stating emphatically that they (Republican) would lift the 2016 championship honours from them (GDF).
But this was not to be as the Republicans had a mere three finalists in three different weight divisions and they won three finals which, incidentally, were against GDF opposition.
The fourth final which they lost was one against Rose Hall Jammers of Berbice whose Julius Kesney won the bantamweight title and was subsequently named the Best Boxer of the championships.
The soldiers’ march to championship honours started from the first fight of the (Elite) category.
(Point to note is that there were three fights in the Youth category that preceded the Elite class and had no bearing on the points standing for championship honours).
Anil Chitraj (GDF pounded out a unanimous points decision win over his gym-mate Royden Nicholson in a junior flyweight contest.
The eventual champions made further inroads when Don Cumberbatch (GDF) is his flyweight contest against his fellow soldier, Reeaz Jahurali, recorded a second-round technical knock-out win.
It was the third fight of the Elite category that saw a change in fortunes for the soldiers as Kesney pounded out a points decision win against Courtney Lynch (GDF).
Kesney started to feel out his opponent from the first round with occasional one-two combinations and Lynch started to get aggressive from the second round, but Kesney countered well while on the retreat and started to take the fight to Lynch, scoring with body and head combinations that staggered the soldier.
In round three, Lynch launched an attack on Kesney with combinations, but the Berbician was equal to the task and connected with overhand left hooks and straight rights and at the end of the bruising contest was declared the winner on points.
Jemol Brisport (GDF) then secured a points’ decision win against his gym-mate Triston Browne to win the lightweight title.
The next bout saw Republican Gym secure their first of three victories as Delroy Nero outpointed Shondel Douglas (GDF) to take the light welterweight title after three rounds of aggressive boxing by both boxers.
The Republicans chalked up their second victory through Joshua Joseph who, despite being more aggressive than his opponent Orlando Norton (GDF), landed far more punches but failed to stop his man and had to settle for a unanimous points win in the welterweight final.
The army boxers then ran off two consecutive victories in the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions as Joshua Fraser (middleweight) and Aluko Bess (light heavyweight) both recorded points decision victories over their army gym-mates Darren McPherson and Marvin Williams respectively.
The Republican then recorded their third and final title as Bryan Leitch (Republican) was far too good for GDF’s Ryan Roberts in their heavyweight final.
Leitch’s power shots had Roberts holding on for dear life throughout the contest and received some mercy from the referee, who refused to warn Roberts or even deduct points from the soldier for consistent infringement of the rules.
The final fight on the night’s entertaining card was one between Renee Lewis and Floyd Cato, both soldiers and at the end of the brawling but clumsy affair, Cato was adjudged winner of the super heavyweight contest.