,,, Allicock, Suriname’s Greene among first-night winners

By Sean Devers

WITH heavy rain pounding the roof of the National Gymnasium on a cold and windy Friday night in the City, the action in the ring was heated on the opening night of the Terrence Ali National Open Boxing Championships.

After a two-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this card was historic because it was the first time that an overseas pugilist was participating and Guyana became the first nation in the English-speaking Caribbean to provide ‘Money for Medals’ at an amateur card.

This was made possible by the president of GBA, Steven Ninvalle, who was among the fair-size gathering on Friday, after just returning from the UAE.
The 23-year-old Allicock, coached by Sebert Blake, slipped and fell to the canvas in the opening seconds of the one-sided encounter but he recovered quickly.

The 2020 Olympian was all over Clarke and the soldier was hit by a well set-up combination to his body which caused the referee to halt the fight in one minute 45 seconds of the first round.
Meanwhile, 27-year-old Samuel Greene, had an auspicious start as the first overseas boxer to participate in this tournament when he got the better of Andrey Bess from Rose Hall Town Jammers in a fight that lacked intensity.

Greene, fighting out of Team Yvel in the Dutch nation, began the first round ‘feeling out’ his man as both boxers exchanged pawing jabs and most of the time they stood at long-range.
Greene caught the Berbician with a left to his head but never made any concerted effort to follow up with more shots, while Bess; the taller of the two, failed to utilise his jabs enough.
In the third stanza Bess never got his shots off while Greene did enough to win the fight.

In the Elites Bantamweight between FYF’s Seon Griffith and Daniel Garnett from the Army, both fighters traded punches and were given standing 8-counts in the first round.
But after three rounds Garnett missed more than he hit and although the GDF Band Corps got going with their drumming it failed to inspire their fighter as Griffith was adjudged the winner.
In the other Bantamweight bout Julius Kesney beat his GDF gym mate by TKO in the second round.

Mark Crawford gave FYF their fourth win of the night when his fight with GDF’s Andrew Griffith was stopped in the second round of their Welterweight clash.
In the Super Heavyweight division Aubrey Headley of GDF defeated policeman Tulsie Persaud in a slug fest with both boxers going with all guns blazing.
In the last bout of the night, the burly Troy Glasgow from GDF knocked out Prince Warner in the first round, much to the dismay of the of Police coach Dexter ‘the Kid’ Marques.

In the Schoolboys Division, VBG, supported by the owners of 2 Brothers Gas Station, showed that the West Side is the best side by winning three of the five events in that category.
Rondel Croft lost to Roopesh Balgobin from RHJ, Jhonny Olejonro lost to fellow VBG gym mate Jolem Jones, Shaquon Marshall beat Shamario Isaacs from FYF, Simeon Jones beat RHJs Cleon Collison from RHJ and Jaden Lewis lost to Curtis McDonald from RHJ.

In-between bouts, pulsating music was played by Uprising Sounds from Plaisance.
There were a few glitches including a late start and some defective lights just above ring but this did not overshadow the success of the first of the three-night Championships.