—Corbin floored by solid uppercut

—rushed to hospital

THE Guyana Boxing Board of Control’s/NexGem six-fight boxing card `Bad Blood’ lived up to expectations as was promised by promoter, Aleem Hussain, that the card will be an `explosive’one featuring some of Guyana’s best professional fighters.
The almost capacity crowd that descended on the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Saturday night were treated to some really brutal encounters that saw two technical knock-out victories along with one brutal knock-out win that caused Guyana’s Shawn Corbin to be rushed to the hospital for treatment.

The supporters that turned out in their numbers to witness one of the better boxing cards in over three years saw local boxers and their foreign counterparts trade punches non-stop, resulting in the spoils for bragging rights being shared.

Guyana’s Dexter `De Kid’ Marques won his 10-round flyweight against Venezuela’s Dionis Martinz Arias via a unanimous points decision victory, while Dexter `Cobra’ Gonsalves seemed to have lost his venom as he suffered a unanimous points decision loss to Felipe Barcelo of Venezuela in their 10-round lightweight contest. In the 12-round light heavyweight fight, Guyana’s Shawn Corbin had to be rushed to the hospital after being struck to the chin with a powerful right uppercut that sent him sprawling on his back for the full count by referee Eion Jardine at two minutes 52 seconds of the 11th round after leading on the judges scorecard going into the 11th round.

The feature bout involving Marques and Arias was expected to provide fans with enthralling entertainment and it did live up to expectations as both boxers went at each other from round one which saw Marques coming out very aggressive and taking the fight to Arias who was content on countering Marques’ tactical approach.

Marques continued his aggressive approach while Arias kept countering during the next four rounds. Marques by then had created a huge lead on the judges scorecard.
According to the official announcement after four rounds, judge Francis Abraham scored the fight 40-39, judge Andrew Thorne had the score 40-37, and judge Trevor Arno had the score at 40-38, all in favour of Marques.

The next four rounds saw Marques advancing to his opponent and stamping his authority, but not without resistance from the Venezuelan who got in quite a few clean shots. After eight rounds of entertainment, the scores read 77-76, 77-75 78-74, all in favour of Marques.

Realising that the fight was close, Marques upped his game and took the attack to Arias who responded in like manner, but his effort was not good enough and Marques was declared winner of the 10-round contest.

In the main supporting bout, Corbin fought gamely during the first nine rounds against Trinidadian Sheldon Lawrence, but seemed complacent after that. After eight rounds, judge Arno had the score 77-76, judge Thorne also saw it 77-76 and judge Abrahim scored it 78-74, all in favour of Corbin.

Two rounds later, the Trinidadian stepped up the tempo, taking the attack to Corbin who tried his best to defend himself. At two minutes 52 seconds of the 11th round, Corbin, with his back to the ropes and Lawrence on the attack, attempted to come off the ropes, using a lunging overhand right-cross while Lawrence was stepping forward.

Lawrence saw the right-cross coming his way and used a right uppercut that landed flush on the `button (chin) of Corbin who slumped to the canvas. He was given the full 10-count and remained there for several minutes; being attended to by ringside doctors and nurses.
Eventually, after not responding to treatment, he was taken out of the ring on a stretcher and transported to hospital.

In other results from the night’s card, Anson Green was stopped by Barbados’ Keithland King at one minute 25 seconds of the second round in their junior middleweight contest.

The second fight saw James Moore making a successful debut to his professional career with a technical win against Sherwin Clarke in a four-round cruiserweight fight, after referee Frank Brisport stopped the contest at two minutes 45 seconds of the third round.
Then came Elton `The Bully’ Dharry who stamped his authority from the onset of his eight-round bantamweight contest against Venezuela’s Jesus Garcia.

From start to end, Dharry was all over the Venezuelan and in the end, all three judges–Eion Jardine, R. Aaron and Arno–scored the fight 80-71 in favour of Dharry.