LOCAL amateur boxers made light work of their Surinamese counterparts when the Guyana Boxing Association, in collaboration with the Bris/Mac Promotions Group staged an international amateur boxing card on Sunday evening at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue.As was promised by the promoters, the card saw `Nuff Cuff’ being thrown not only during the local fights, but also during the international bouts involving Guyanese and Surinamese pugilists.
The card, which was scheduled for a 19:00hrs start did not get underway until after 20:00hrs, but once it got started, the handful of fans present were treated to some entertaining bouts by some of Guyana’s young pugilists, aged between eight and 11 years.
After 10 local bouts, all entertaining, the four international encounters saw the Guyanese dominating all, with three of the four fights ending within three rounds.
First it was Richard Subratte (Guyana) who scored a technical knock-out victory over his Surinamese counterpart Stefon van Ommereren in their youth contest.
Ommereren started off taking aim at Subratte and sent him to the canvas early in the opening round, but the Guyanese recovered and took the attack to his opponent scoring with telling combinations.
From the start of the second round, Subratte came out gunning for his opponent and caught him with a number of combinations to body and head staggering the Dutchman a few times and one second into the final round, just as the bell was about to be sounded for the start of the third and final round, van Ommereren’s corner threw in the towel to halt the proceedings.
The second international contest saw Christopher Moore battle with Fitzgerald King and a lot was anticipated from King, but he lost his `throne’ as a result of a two-minute 50-second stoppage in the third round.
The opening round could have been considered an even round as both boxers traded punches and seemed to have scored evenly, but from the second round, Moore stepped up the pace and connected steadily to the body and head of his opponent who tried in vain to counter Moore’s onslaught.
Moore sent his opponent crashing into the ropes on two occasions and he (King) received two standing eight counts.
As the fight continued, King came out in the third round attacking, but Moore, a seasoned amateur fighter was up to the task and responded with several body shots and during the final minute of the bout, Moore pummelled king with combinations for which the latter had no answer and the referee eventually called a halt to the proceedings.
It was then Jason Bakker’s (GUY) time to take the ring and he wasted no time in forcing the referee to stop his contest against Marlon Leming at one minute 59 seconds of round one.
Bakker was the aggressor from the sound of the bell and, using his height and reach, he stunned Leming with some telling shots that earned two standing eight counts and after a third assault on his Dutch opponent, the referee stopped the contest.
In the fourth and final international contest Guyana’s Shaquille Craig outlasted Suriname’s Steven Lim to win by a unanimous decision.