– win eight of 14 bouts, including two of three Elite contests

By Michael DaSilva

GUYANA’s amateur boxers, in an attempt to reclaim the Caribbean Amateur Boxing Championship which they lost in St. Lucia last year, continued to `blaze the trail’ and after three nights of competition, seem set to achieve their goal.

Of the 14 fights (Youth, Juniors, Novices and Elite) the locals contested on Saturday, they came out victorious in eight of them, winning two of two in the Youth category, one of four in the junior category, three of four in the Novice category and two of three in the Elite category.

Headlining Guyana’s successes on Saturday night were middleweight (Elite) Desmond Amsterdam, light heavyweight (Elite) Markember Pierre and middleweight (Novice), Alex Murray.

Amsterdam secured a TKO win at two minutes 16 seconds of the first round against Grenada’s Joshua Redhead, while Pierre had to work overtime to win a points decision win against Barbados’ Charles Cox while Murray, after looking unable to make an impression after the first round, stormed back to win his contest against Mohamed.

In the Amsterdam versus Redhead contest, Amsterdam went to the centre of the ring, stalking Redhead and with a left hook from nowhere, connected to his opponent and the referee issued a standing eight-count.

Seconds later, Redhead started to fight back, but Amsterdam was too much for him and the referee was forced to issue a second eight-count and after the second eight-count, the Grenadian realised that he had had enough and decided to call it quits.

In the Pierre versus Cox affair, both boxers started off cautiously, but after about 45 seconds, Pierre probably thought he had enough of the pawing and turned on the heat on his opponent, forcing him on the ropes and connected with several combinations to his opponents’ body and head and was easily the winner of what can be described as a one-sided affair.

As for the Murray versus Mohamed Novice’s middleweight contest, the Trinidadian went to the centre of the ring in a positive mode and seemed to have the advantage in the early part of the round, but Murray showed his class and started attacking his Trinidadian counterpart with solid one-two combinations and the pattern continued for the remainder of the contest and in the end, the Guyanese (Murray) was adjudged winner.

Meanwhile, Grenada, which is having a terrible championship, won one of their three fights, while Trinidad won six of ten; Barbados lost all three of their contests; Guadeloupe won one of two; St. Marteen one from one and St. Lucia one from one.

In the Youth category, Trinidad won two from two; Grenada lost one from one and Barbados also lost one of one.

In the junior division, Guyana won one in four; Trinidad three of four and Guadeloupe one of two.

In the novices category, Guadeloupe won one of one; St. Marteen won one of one; Grenada lost one of one; Barbados lost one of one and Trinidad lost three of three.