By Carwyn Holland
The main event on the professional segment of the Friday night Pro-Am Boxing Card at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall between national welterweight champion Iwan Azore and spoiler Troy Lewis was expected to be an all out action fight as promised by both boxers at the pre-fight press conference.
However, what the fans expected and paid for, they didn’t get.
For much of the four-round contest Azore and Lewis played ‘hansy pansy’ but when the bout ended and the drawn decision was announced, they got into real action which brought everyone including the officials to their feet.
The melee’certainly was not expected by the few boxing fans on hand and the many watching on televisions in the comfort of their homes.
It all started at the end of the fight when both boxers were celebrating an anticipated victory.
But, after some deliberations, the Master of Ceremonies, Basil Bradshaw, announced that the outcome of the bout was a draw.
The verdict wasn’t accepted by a clearly upset Lewis who angrily questioned the judges’ decision.
He was subsequently seen displaying unsportsmanlike behaviour in the ring.
To make matters worse, Azore who seemed happy with the decision of the judges, attempted to give Lewis a hug in an apparent gesture of good sportsmanship.
It was then that persons watching realized that the boxers had left their promised all-out action for after the fight.
A push by Lewis got an angry verbal response from Azore, followed by his trademark straight left which the fans were looking for throughout the fight but had not seen.
Lewis responded with a few punches of his own and added a few kicks to his arsenal.
Officials finally managed to separate the two boxers turned UFC fighters.
But the brawl left a bitter taste in the mouth of boxing lovers.
It was a disappointing performance by national champion Azore who was not smart enough to keep moving to his right to avoid the right hand slugs from the lesser-skilled Lewis.
Rounds one and two hardly produced any action and the boxers were rewarded with ‘boos” from the spectators and a warning from the referee to engage and throw punches.
They picked up the pace in round three and Lewis landed a huge overhand right which wobbled the legs of the Trinidad-based Azore who quickly regrouped and landed a few clean shots of his own. Lewis’s longer reach and advantage was clearly evident as he pressed the action on the ropes but could not find the same recipe which gave him a TKO stoppage over undefeated Rudolph Fraser earlier this year.
Despite landing the cleaner shots through round two and three, Azore seemed to be closely behind on the scorecards as the work rate of Lewis was superior.
Azore, however, started the last round playing it safe but dished out a few combinations from his southpaw stance which left Lewis dazed and confused for a few seconds. He did not sustain the attacks and the fight ended with many at ringside giving the fight to the more aggressive Lewis.
Azore’s camp was relieved while Lewis’ cornermen cried ‘Foul Cook-up’.
In other professional fights on the card, Shawn Pile was unimpressive against a human punching bag named Clifton Barker. Pile failed to use his superior skills and that encouraged Barker to be aggressive and attack his taller opponent. Pile won the fight but needs to do a lot of work for his upcoming CABOFE Title fight next month in Barbados against local champion Miguel Antoine. Barker, however, cannot be deemed a warm-up for Pile as he received a sound thrashing recently in Trinidad and is clearly not a test.
In the lone female bout Sharon Ward had her hands full against the younger and lesser experienced Kwinda Rogers.
Rogers, who was coming off a loss to exciting prospect Mandessa Moses in her last fight, showed little respect for the more seasoned Ward and was the aggressor for the first two rounds.
Tiredness took over in rounds three and four and Ward stepped up her game and used her experience to pressure Rogers with a series of body shots. The judges scored the fight a draw.
The other fight on the professional card was a rematch between the up and coming Kwesi Jones and the amateur coach and pro-boxer James Walcott. Jones won the fight by unanimous decision despite a more purposeful effort by Walcott this time around. Walcott switched stance and managed to tag Jones closer to the end round one. Rounds two and three were closer rounds despite Jones being more aggressive and Walcott was landing cleaner punches.
The pressure from Jones dropped the energy level of Walcott and he was outhustled by the awkward Jones despite lacking in proper timing and placement.
The final round was more of a wrestling match as the spectators started to boo the combatants. Jones, however, hustled him enough to earn another victory to leave Walcott pondering his future as a professional boxer. Perhaps Walcott should remain as coach where he has found some success and forget about being a fighter where the word success seems not to exist.