BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Barbadian cruiserweight boxer Shawn “The Sniper” Cox scored a sudden second-round technical knockout victory over St Lucian Patrick Wilson in the main event of the Stonewall Promotions’ three-fight card on Friday night.
Cox floored Wilson with a powerful left hand and ended the non-title battle between two former Caribbean amateur champions at two minutes, 31 seconds of round two at the George Street Auditorium. In the last bout of a reduced card, Cox made light work of Wilson in his first bout of the year and stretched his unblemished record to 8-0 with eight knockouts.
Wilson dropped to one win against two defeats.
Cox, holder of the Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) cruiserweight title, spent the opening round measuring his opponent and being defensively tight and with Wilson showing respect for the more accomplished Barbadian, the first three minutes were tame.
Wilson was aggressive at the start of the following round but Cox was hardly bothered and returned good shots of his own.
The bout was shaping to be a good tussle between Wilson’s strength and aggression against the craft and confidence of Cox but the local star abruptly ended the contest as round two drew to a close with a vicious over-hand left that dropped Wilson into a sitting position.
Wilson beat referee Curtis Miller’s count but he was unable to continue and Cox recorded yet another win inside two rounds.
“I knew that I would have knocked him out but I thought it would have gone on a little longer because he is a strong opponent,” said Cox, who has logged five first-round knockouts and has never gone beyond two rounds in his brief pro career.
The two met as amateurs several years ago when Cox was knocked down by Wilson but recovered to win.
Mindful of his previous experience with Wilson, Cox explained that he was careful early in bout and made sure his defence was solid.
“He had dropped me already (as an amateur) so I knew he would have come out and start bombing but that’s why I had my guard up high, but all in all I am glad that it got stopped early,” said the 2000 Olympian Cox, who won seven Caribbean Amateur Boxing Association (CABA) championship gold medals.
The 34-year-old Cox, who is expected to defend his CABOFE belt next month, had also won Commonwealth Championship gold and Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games gold before turning pro in September 2007.
Wilson, 36, blamed inadequate preparation for his loss but praised Cox’s power.
“The fight started good (for me), if I had the condition I could have continued the fight,” Wilson said.
“Cox did catch me with some good punches I could admit that yes. He was stronger than me, I could feel it by his power,” he added.
The co-main event on the scheduled four-fight card was cancelled as Leon Gilkes did not arrive from Guyana to face Cleveland Fraser in a cruiserweight bout.
Barbadian Matthew Robinson and Guyana’s Revlon Lake registered wins in the other two bouts on the card.
Robinson defeated Guyana’s Mark Murray on a unanimous points decision in their welterweight bout.
The unbeaten Robinson out-muscled Murray and won 39-37, 40-38, 39-37 on the judges’ cards to improve his ring record to 3-0.
Light welterweight Lake floored Barbadian Shurwyne Marshall in the second round en route to a unanimous decision verdict to avenge a disputed draw the two had in October 2006.
Lake won 58-55, 60-56 and 60-55 on the judges’ cards and improved to four wins against two losses and two draws.
