By Emmerson Campbell
A thundering right hand by Simeon ‘Candy Man’ Hardy brought the crowd at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall to its feet on Friday last at the staging of the 20th edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) Guyana Fight Night Pro Am card.
At two minutes, 25 seconds of the ninth round, the vicious right-hand, dubbed ‘the chin checker’ connected to the chin of Iwan ‘Pure Gold’ Azore, crumpling him to the canvas, while sending arguably the largest crowd in Pro Am history into a frenzy.
The headlined bout on the card saw Hardy and Azore fighting for the vacant WBC Caribbean Boxing Federation (CABOFE) welterweight title.
Both fighters came out very focused and determined to capture the accolade.
Round one was pretty much a feeling out round with neither boxer landing any significant punch.
The second round was almost identical as the first as both fighters continued searching for weaknesses in each other’s defence.
Round three saw the fighters stepping up their aggression with Azore and Hardy both having their moments landing combinations to the head and body of each other.
Hardy, who had predicted that he would have knocked out Azore before the end of round four, almost made that prediction come true when he stunned Azore with a left hook to the jaw. The left hook sent Azore to the canvas and referee Eon Jardine started his count.
Azore would beat Jardine’s 10-count and survive the rest of the round by holding on.
The corner of Azore did a good job of refreshing their fighter as he showed no ill effects in round five when he showed his skill and experience as he evaded Hardy’s punches with head movement and footwork.
The Trinidad and Tobago-based southpaw, Azore, grew in confidence and turned on the pressure on Hardy in rounds six and seven, landing his right jab and a few hard left hands to the head of Hardy.
In round eight the ‘Candy Man’ used his superior reach and established his jab while searching for openings to land the right hand.
He would find it in the following round.
At the end of round eight, it was announced that Azore was behind on all three of the judge’s scorecards and this must have prompted him to go on the attack.
From the start of round nine, Azore came out throwing jabs and crisp left hands snapping back Hardy’s head on a few occasions, Hardy went back to his jab and would land some of his own. As the round progressed Hardy must have seen that Azores’ guards were always at the side of his head in anticipation of left and right hooks. He then sent a jab that snapped back the head of Azore and followed up with a straight right hand between Azore’s defenses that tested his chin. When the right hand landed, Azore crashed to the canvas and lay motionless for several moments as supporters for Hardy entered the ring in a wild celebration.
The 29-year-old Azore’s record drops to 14 wins, five losses and three draws, while the ‘Candy Man’ improves to seven wins with six of them by way of knockout.
In winning the CABOFE title, the 24-year-old Hardy, will enter the WBC CUP, the 40-week tournament that will be begin in May and could earn him huge paydays as well as international exposure.
In the preceding bout, Guyana’s middleweight champion Edmond DeClou unanimously defeated James Walcott in their four-round catchweight bout.
DeClou, who used the fight as a warm-up ahead of next month’s engagement with Trinidadian Kevin Placide for the vacant WBC CABOFE middleweight title, initially had his hands full with the Harpy Eagles’ coach, Walcott. However, the Lindener established his powerful jab and used combinations to stun Walcott on several occasions.
Mitchell Rogers also defeated Anthony Augustin by a unanimous decision in their heavyweight four–round rematch.
Both fighters failed to generate any significant excitement except for a few combinations in the final round. With the victory, Rogers is scheduled to have a rematch with Kurt Bess, who was in attendance for the local heavyweight title.
In a four-round trilogy, Mark Austin once again defeated Jermaine King. King, who lost the first and second bouts by unanimous and majority decisions respectively, lost Friday night’s encounter by a majority verdict.
The taller King used his superior reach in round one, landing jabs to Austin’s head on several occasions; however, Austin came on strong in the latter rounds, by closing the distance while landing shots to the head and body of King.
On the amateur segment of the card Quincy Boyce (110 -117 pounds) of the Five Star Boxing gym and Joel Williamson (95-99 pounds) of the Pocket Rocket Boxing gym (PRBG) gained first round victories over their Harpy Eagles opponents Akeem Daniels and Travis Hubbard respectively.
Both fights were stopped by referee Ramona Agard after two standing eight counts.
In a highly-competitive 107 to 114-pound slugfest Dewani Lampkin of the Forgotten Youth Foundation edged out Five Star’s Matthew Hollingsworth to earn a two to one decision.
Jamal Eastman, (80-84 pounds) of the PRBG also won by a two to one verdict in his match up with Five Star’s Ryan Sumner.
At intermission a representative of Courts Guyana Inc, shared out hampers to all eight amateur boxers.
The monthly card is an initiative of the GBBC in collaboration with the Ministry of Sport and the National Communication Network (NCN).
Sponsors for the event include Digicel, Giftland Office Max, Courts, Banks DIH Limited and Ansa Mcal.
