Two-day development boxing tournament…

THERE were 12 bouts, including a female exhibition match-up as well as two walk-overs on the opening night of the Guyana Boxing Association (GBA)’s development boxing tournament at the National Gymnasium on Wednesday night.

The Surinamese pugilists beat their Guyanese counterparts in both international fights on the night’s card to qualify for last night’s finals.

In the first international bout, Donn-G Sadhoe stopped Guyanese Joshua Lewis in 42 seconds of the second round.

The Dutch fighter came out in ultra-aggressive mode, and stunned the Guyanese with a flurry of shots.

He executed some clinical uppercuts to Lewis’ body, landing clean left jabs to his head.

A crunching right cross to the head resulted in Lewis being given the first of two standing eight-counts in the first round.

The second round saw Sadhoe backing his man up against the ropes with wicked uppercuts to the body and head.

The Guyanese, urged on by a fair-size crowd which included Olympian Keevin Allicock and World ranked female boxer Abiola Jackman, tried to fight back.

But Sadhoe followed-up a jab with a brutal right hook, and the referee, who had seen enough, rushed in to save Lewis from further punishment.

In the other international encounter, the Surinamese Valentino Artist had to work much harder than his countryman for his win, on points, over Simeon Haymer, after three competitive rounds of fistic fury.

In the first stanza, Haymer used his jabs to good effect before Artist retaliated with some good combinations of his own towards the end of the round.

The second round saw the Guyanese moving forward to trade punches with the Dutch fighter.

A few good combinations from Haymer seemed to hurt his opponent, who tried to counter-punch.

In the final round, with both boxers beginning to tire and miss with big swings, it was Artist who had the last say with some well-executed jabs to Haymer’s head to get the judges’ nod.

The Card, which commenced almost an hour after the scheduled 19:00hrs start, began with the schoolboys matching gloves against each other.

In the 25-27 kg division, Junior Madray of Pace & Power Boxing Gym (PPBG) beat Aaron Fileen of Vergenogen Boxing Gym (VBG).

In the 30-32kg, VBG’s Ezekiel Withright lost to Akeem Quinton from PPBG, while PPBG’s Nicholas Ashby was victorious over Rayon France from VBG in the 33-35kg category.

An exhibition bout between the Barker sisters (Tofina & Melia) separated the schools and the first international contest.

In the Juniors 48-50kg, Lennox Lawrence of Police lost to Andrew Rogers from New Amsterdam Boxing Academy (NABA), one of the two new Gyms from Berbice registering for this tournament.

The 51-53kg saw Ryan Rogers from Forgotten Youths Foundation (FYC) stop Jaheem Ashby of PPBG in 1:11 secs of Round Two of their contest.

Ken Harvey of PPBG stopped Hotham Vancooten of NABA in 1:25 seconds of their 56-59kg clash.

Daniel Dehnart of Berbice Boxing Gym (BBG) beat Shane Caesar of NABG in the 76-80kg Division.

In the Elites, FYF’s Septon Barton got a walkover over Police’s Kenny Torres, while GDF’s Colin Lewis got a walkover from Joel Hinds from VBG.

GDF’s Welterweight Elliot Sinclair lost to Policeman Emmanuel Sancho, while in the Cruiserweight division, Police’s Hullman Bovell beat GDF’s Quincy Boyce.