BOXERS from the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) started their defence of the Andrew `Sixhead’ Lewis National Novices title on a positive note when the event got underway on Friday night at the National Gymnasium, Mandela Avenue, Georgetown.

Of the six bouts on the night’s card, the military men won four, while two other soldiers were stopped within the three-round distance.

Three of the Army’s four victories were all-GDF encounters. Their two losses were against boxers from the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) gym and the Republican (Rep).

There were two bruising contests between the soldiers and the boxers from FYF and REP and these were the highlights of the night’s proceedings since the all-soldier contests were dull. This can be attributed to the fact that the three fights were between fighters from the same gym

The fight of the night was a light heavyweight contest between Wilbert James (GDF) and Thadius Perry (Rep).

From the sound of the bell for the first round, both James and Perry came out slugging, throwing punches from all angles. A straight punch by James landed flush on the chin of Perry, sending him to the canvas for the eight-count.

Perry got to his feet and kept stepping forward and throwing punches, but James responded in like manner and clearly won the round.

Rounjd two started like the first with punches from both boxers being thrown from all angles. However, Perry was more effective landing some telling right shots to the head of James, who was eventually floored and counted out at one minute 28 seconds of the round.

The other entertaining fight was one in the middleweight division between Royden Grant (GDF) and Alex Murray (FYF).

From round one, Grant took the fight to Murray who was equal to the task and the round could have gone to Grant. However, the second round saw a change in Murray’s strategy, as he kept very close to Grant and while Grant connected with some overhand right hand shots to his head, he (Murray) absorbed them and retaliated in like manner.

Round three saw Grant attack Murray with a barrage of punches. Murray retaliated with body shots that seemed to have hurt Grant.

Realising that Grant was injured, Murray kept close to his opponent and connected with a series of one-two combinations to Grant’s mid-section forcing the referee to issue two eight-counts to the soldier and eventually calling off the fight at two minutes 34 seconds of round three.

In other results, Jamal LaRose secured a first-round technical knock-out (TKO) victory against his GDF counterpart Dexter Alexander in a bantamweight contest.

In the lightweight division, Jevon Gomes (GDF) also secured a first-round TKO win against Irvine Austin (GDF). In the junior welterweight category, Jermain Jackman had the referee stop his contest against Aldyn Melville (GDF) during the second round.

The championships will conclude tonight at the same venue with the finals in all the divisions.