WATCHED by a small gathering, which included Olympian Keevin Allicock and the world-rated Jackman sisters, the opening night of the Guyana Boxing Association’s (GBA’s) National Boxing Championships at the National Gymnasium on Saturday night left much to be desired and was marred by five walkovers.

Of the five walkovers, four pugilists from the Police Boxing Gym were guilty of the no-shows.

Since the death of former GDF and National Head Coach Terrence Poole, the standard of the boxers from the army fighters has taken a nose dive.

Set to start on Friday night, internal issues resulted in the card being reduced to two days with 19 bouts carded for Saturday night.

Malcolm Williams of the GDF gave a walkover to Police’s Oasis Prince.

Seon Griffith (FYF) got a walkover from Romel Thomas; Revaldo Benedict failed to enter the ring for his fight against the GDF’s Desmond Amsterdam; Riveldo Walcott provided a walkover to ALBG’s Carsol Goodchild and Barin Ignacio did not turn up for his bout against Orlando Norton of the GDF.

Griffith, Amsterdam, Goodchild and Norton advanced to last night’s finals.

Stephon Barton (FYF) also advanced to the final after beating Police’s Kevin Isaacs in the 57-60 kg semi-final.

GDF’s Wayne July beat Police’s Hollman Bovell in the 86-96 kg semi-final to advance to the final, while FYF’s Emmanuel Pompey beat GDF’s Faizul Mohammed in the 92kg semis to also book his place in the final.

In the 92Kg semi-final, FYF’s Brian Harris defeated the GDF’s Zedan Wray when he floored the soldier in 1:42 of the first round.

Meanwhile, four boxers entered the ring twice for the night to qualify for the last night’s final.

GDF’s Colin Lewis stopped Police’s Clifton Graham in the 63-67 kg weight division in the quarter-final, before Shemar Sooklall of the GDF abandoned his fight in round two in the semi-final as Lewis qualified for last night’s final.

After beating GDF’s Terrence Barton in the quarter finals, Richard Moore lost in the 60-63 kg semi-final to Patrick Harvey. Harvey, from FYF, had got the better of GDF’s Brandon Jarrick in the third bout of the night in the quarter-final action.

Joel Williamson (RHJ) beat Kevin Semple (Police) in the quarter-final of the 60-63 Kgs bout, before the Berbician knocked out Damion France of the GDF in 1:40 in the first round.

Travis Inverery (FYF) beat Police’s Cary Pulin in the quarter-final of the 71-75 kg, before beating Prince in the semi-final. Prince had earlier advanced to the semis via a walkover.