FANS of the fistic sport were treated to some classy displays of boxing on Sunday night when the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBB) staged its `Locked and Loaded’ fight card on Sunday night at the Giftland Mall, Pattensen, East Coast Demerara.
The few hundred fans in attendance witnessed Guyana’s Dexter `De Kid’ Marques shake off the ring rust he accumulated over his 14-month absence from the ring to win by a unanimous decision over Venezuela’s Luis Alberto Requena Zarraga in their 10-round lightweight contest.
Prior to that, Edmund DeClou pounded out a unanimous decision win against Winston Pompey in a six-round super middleweight contest and Imran `the Magic’ Khan chalked up his second professional victory from four bouts with a unanimous decision win against Keeve Allicock in a lightweight contest.
In the feature fight on the night’s Pro Am card, Marques started the first round attacking his Venezuelan opponent with combinations, but Zarraga responded equally to even the round.
From the start of the second round, Marques continued his aggression, while Zarraga countered and eventually pinned the Guyanese against the ropes and pummelled him with some telling combinations and seemed to have won the round.
Before the start of round three, the disc jockey played Dave Martin’s Not a Blade of Grass and apparently this inspired Marques who started the round with several combinations to the body and head of the Venezuelan who continued to put up resistance with his counter-punching style but Marques kept to his task and stormed the Spanish fighter.
Round four saw Marques connecting with four telling combinations to the head of Zarraga early in the round but Zarraga answered with a few combinations of his own.

From the start of the fifth round, both boxers faced off toe-to-toe exchanging punches from all angles, but midway in the round, Marques connected with a body-and-head combination to Zarraga that stunned him for a few seconds.
Round six saw Marques connect with straight rights and follow up with combinations, keeping the pressure on the Venezuelan.
From the seventh round, Marques looked as though he wanted to close off the fight, but Zarraga would have none of that as he put up resistance despite Marques keeping close to him.
Round eight and nine saw Marques, who obviously knew he was ahead on points on the judges’ score card, started to keep Zarraga at bay with triple left jabs and occasional straight rights and it worked for him.
For the final round, both fighters came out looking to close it off as earliest as possible, going after each other, but in the end, it was Marques who did not fight since February last year that was announced the winner.
In the main supporting bout, Edmund DeClou improved his professional career record as he made it 17 wins and four losses as against Pompey who fought his 18th fight on Sunday night and lost to DeClou who seemed to be in fine nick.
The six-round contest saw DeClou and Pompey feel out each other during the opening round, after which they went at each other, as Pompey decided to keep close to his opponent, throwing combinations to which DeClou responded likewise.
From the third round DeClou came out attacking, throwing punches from every angle, but Pompey retaliated and started to take the fight to his opponent.
Rounds four and five saw DeClou using his left jabs and straight rights to good effect, keeping Pompey at bay, while in the final round, DeClou continued the strategy which seemed to have frustrated Pompey who stalked his opponent but was unable to make any sort of penetration and in the end, DeClou was declared the winner.
In the first professional fight, Khan looked 100% fitter than when he last fought in October of 2016. He was head-butted in the first round and, after being treated for a cut over the left eye, he changed gears and took the fight to Allicock who stood the test of time. However, Khan’s relentless attacks for the remainder of the fight were more than Allicock could stave off and in the end Khan secured his second professional victory from four fights.
Earlier in the night, Akeela Lamazon scored a unanimous points-decision win over Rewinne David in their ladies’ four-round World Boxing Council’s four-round bout, while Euel Augustin also secured a unanimous win against Kelon Isaacs in a light welterweight bout.