Hunte advances to semis; Amsterdam, Lewis lose

GUYANA’S superheavyweight champion Kevin Hunte stormed to a first-round victory on the opening night of the Caribbean Boxing Championships in Trinidad and Tobago, but the defending champions lost three bouts.

With several top nations, including powerhouse Cuba in the championships, defending the title looks to be an uphill task for Guyana. It showed with current Caribbean middleweight champion, Desmond ‘Dynamic’ Amsterdam, and former Caribbean lightweight champion Colin ‘Superman’ Lewis going down in their opening bouts.

Along with the champion pair, Kevin McKenzie also lost when he battled against Jamaican Joshua Fraser in a welterweight bout.
All three of our defeats were via points. National coach Terrence Poole told Chronicle Sport that he was surprised with the decision in Amsterdam’s fight.
“The judging was terrible for the Amsterdam bout.”

Amsterdam, who was imposing en route to the national middleweight title last month at home, lost to Grenadian Triston Brookes.
Brookes, however, lives in Canada, where he has become a dominant name. In fact, he won Canada’s middleweight national title in 2017 and again this year. Brookes also won the WBA and IBF amateur titles last month, when he represented the Eddie Melo Legacy Organisation at the prestigious and coveted fourth annual Willie Pep Invitational, hosted in East Windsor, Conn.

Despite the Grenadian conquests, Amsterdam reportedly dominated their clash so much so that when the split decision was announced it baffled the Guyanese side and according to president of the Guyana Boxing Association Steve Ninvalle our officials later protested.
“They did an official protest, but were advised by the ITO (International Technical Officer) that the protest had to be done while the referee was in the ring, because once the referee is out of the ring you can’t protest – which is something fairly new.”

Lewis faced off against Cuban boxer Jorge Moiran and he also lost on points against the seasoned fighter.

Guyana’s triple champion boxer (Novice, Intermediate and Open) for 2019, Hunte, was able to overpowered Grenadian Andy Andall with some power punches in round one of their +91kg clash to advance to tonight’s semi-finals, where he is scheduled to face home fighter Nigel Paul.

Andall was no walkover; he had represented his island at the 2019 International Boxing Association (AIBA) World Boxing Championships in Yekaterinburg, Russia in September, but the Guyanese was too daunting in their clash.

Paul is also experienced. He represented the Twin Islands Republic at the 2016 Olympics.
Last night Alesha Jackman, one of two female Guyanese boxers at the meet, was scheduled to be in action. The amazingly talented Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) boxer was set to fight against home team boxer Sharika Elias in the Youth Women Novice 64kg battle.

Howard Richard was also scheduled to meet Trinidadian Nyrell Hosein in a Youth bantamweight clash, while another 2019 Guyanese triple champion Daren France was set to face Grenadian Dariel Sylvester in a heavyweight (91kg) clash.