After a year away from the fistic sport Howard ‘Battersea Bomber’ Eastman returned to the ring and produced a lacklustre performance in his loss against Kwesi ‘Lightning Hitman’ Jones on Friday night at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
The fight was hardly the showpiece that the patrons anticipated especially after witnessing the battles between Mark Austin, who claimed his first professional draw, and Clive Atwell and Debbie Tyson against Pauline London. All in all the eighth edition of the Pro-Am Friday Night Fights panned out to be another good night of boxing.
In the second fight of the evening Simeon Hardy was declared medically unfit to face Gavin Williams in their debut matchup.
Austin, who got the sternest test of his brief career, said after his bout that that he would like a rematch with the former amateur champion, Atwell. This admission came after their four-round lightweight contest.
Atwell was more active in the first two rounds than Austin, who would have swayed the judges to rule the fight a draw in the final two rounds where he was stronger. Both fighters seemed equally matched on the night and it reflected in their trading of shots.
The second and third frames started out the same way with both fighters trading punches in the middle of the ring before resorting to the ropes. Austin was applying pressure and Atwell’s only resort was holding by the middle part of the third and the fourth rounds.
London, who rattles off the fate of her opponents constantly, was not able to counter the many head snapping jabs of Tyson, who avenged her loss to London on the last FNF card. Tyson followed up her jabs with combinations to the body of London that sought that elusive one punch knockout.
In the one-sided affair though London managed to stitch in a few body digs of her own but these came too late. Tyson, 42, had already delivered the goods and further emphasized that London is a “talk up boxer”.
In the exhibition fight World Boxing Council (WBC) Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) light heavyweight champion Shawn Corbin out roared journeyman Leon ‘The Lion’ Gilkes, on his way to a unanimous decision victory. While it was clear that Corbin was the better boxer, Gilkes had his moments in the bout that showed he was present.
However, these moments were few and far between. He connected with a solid right uppercut to the body of Corbin but this was countered with a few combinations to the body.
The two traded blows for the rest of the fight but Corbin’s punches had notably more sting than Gilkes’ who started to run out of steam. This resulted in Gilkes touching the canvas late in the third round.
Gilkes, fighting to save face, responded with a flurry of punches of his own that proved ineffective. But again Corbin rose to the occasion and hammered him in the corner.
On the amateur side of things, Forgotten Youth Foundation’s (FYF) Dexter Wray hardly worked up a sweat in his matchup against Republican’s Daneshwar Narine, as the latter refused to answer the bell for the second round of their three-round junior flyweight contest.
Ron Smith from Timehri created an upset when he defeated Laurex Stewart of FYF by a 2-1 decision while Eon Bancroft and Markember Pierre of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) defeated Republican gymmates Alfred Benjamin and Trelon Munroe, with Bancroft gaining a 2-1 decision while Pierre stopped his man within 54 seconds of the first round.
