Four bouts fail to go the distance on the opening night

FOUR stoppages were registered on Friday’s opening night of the Guyana Boxing Association’s (GBA’s) Senior Developmental two-night Championships at the National Gymnasium.

A handful of fans watched as the night commenced with three youth match-ups which included the new Bailey’s Boxing Gym (BBG), which was opened late last year and is located in West La Penitence, popularly known as “The Island.”

Forgotten Youths Foundation’s (FYF) Fidel Persaud used his height advantage to beat Rosehall Town Jammers’ (RHTJ) Troy Lindore in the 46-48 kg category, while in the 49-51kg division Travis Sancho beat his club mate Shawn Sabolo, who was disqualified for not being willing to fight.

For over a minute in the first round, Sabolo, who sprayed his hair blond, stood and took a series of tame punches to his head without attempting to retaliate, forcing the referee to halt proceedings.
In the other youth bout, Leon Albert of Andrew “Six Head” Lewis Gym (ALBG) beat GBB’s Clifton Jackson in the 55-59 kg category.

In the Elite Bantamweight Semi-finals, Police pugilist Kevin Isaacs was all over his GDF opponent Melroy McPherson.
McPherson, the shorter of the two, was hit to his head and body with crunching combinations before he was staggered by a well-executed straight right to be given his first eight-count in the first round.

The soldier tried to counterpunch but Isaacs caught him with a powerful right hook to his head, resulting in the referee administering a second standing eight-count as McPherson wobbled on the ropes.
McPherson got in a few shots of his own but did little damage to Isaacs, who threw a flurry of punches with McPherson backed up on the ropes, but the bell rang to save him from a possible knockout.

The contest was however stopped in the second round as Isaacs advanced to last night’s final.
Mark Crawford was clinical in his one-minute, 15 seconds second round knock-out of GDF’s Colin Hinds.
Crawford was relentless as he peppered his man with brutal shots from all angles. Hinds resorted to ‘tying up’ his opponent before Hinds with a three-punch combination of shots to the midsection, the last of which was below the belt, to send Hinds sprawling to the canvas.

The ring doctor rushed into the ring to attend to the fallen soldier who was deemed to have been knocked out by the referee to start celebrations from Crawford’s Albouystown supporters.
The Cruiserweight contest between FYF’s Brian Harris and Police’s Hullman Bovell was stopped in 1:36 seconds of the second round when the south-paw Harris suffered a laceration (cut) to his cheek.

In the Super Heavyweight brawl between the monstrous Troy Glasgow and his GDF stable mate Zidan Wray, both fighters brought their heavy artillery but in the end, it was Glasgow who emerged victorious by way of a second-round TKO.

On a night in which the atmosphere lacked intensity, the Welterweight contest between Police’s Emmanuel Sancho and Patrick Harvey of FYC produced the most entertaining fight of the night.
Harvey, fighting out of the blue corner, was pushed backwards by Sancho who used his jabs to set up punishing right crosses as the pair went toe to toe in the first round.

The pair, displaying good techniques, traded punches and counterpunches with Sancho scoring with cleaner shots.
The second round saw both fighters ‘upping the tempo’ with Sancho in particular hurting his opponent with well-crafted uppercuts as Harvey retaliated with a few good shots of his own.

With both boxers sporting funky dread hairstyles, the action slowed down as tiredness stepped in and Harvey employed the ‘holding tactic’ but when the dust had settled, it was Sancho who had outboxed his man and was adjudged the winner in the only elite contest to go the full three rounds.

The action was expected to continue last night with the finals.
This was the GBA’s second card for the year following its Pepsi Under16 School Boys/Girls Boxing programme at the Andrew “Six Head” Lewis Boxing Gym in Albouystown.