By Emmerson Campbell
Brothers Richard and Joel Williamson were adjudged the best boxers of the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) National Trials Championships at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall on Saturday night.
The two-night tournament, which boxed off on Friday, was organized to provide active competition for the country’s Simon Pures.
The older Williamson, Richard, earned the senior best boxer award after he thoroughly outboxed United States of America-based pugilist Lawrence Singh in their flyweight matchup three to nil while Joel won the junior best boxer after he defeated Dawani Lampkin two to one.
The Williamsons trained by Orlan ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers at the Pocket Rocket Boxing Gym (PRBG) in Berbice.
The skillful Singh, who trains at the Head Bangers gym in Washington, D.C, tried to counterpunch Williamson throughout the encounter but the PRBG product proved elusive while using his reach advantage to land his own punches to the head and body of the shorter Singh.
The Head Bangers representative also put himself at a disadvantage as he was deducted three points for infringement of the rules.
Lampkin, of the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) was coming off a two to one victory over Five Star’s Matthew Hollingsworth Friday night and was brimming with confidence. This was evident in the first round of his encounter with the younger Williamson; however, as the fight progressed, the southpaw Berbician used counter punches to take control of the bout.
Lampkin, a southpaw himself, had his moments landing his right jab and some stiff left hands. Nevertheless, Williamson did just enough to win the battle of the southpaws and the best junior boxer award.
Two other brothers Kevin and Kurt Allicock from the Harpy Eagles (HE) gym also recorded victories of their own. Both Kevin (65-69 pounds) and Kurt (70-74 pounds) won three to nil against their respective opponents Five Star’s Delroy Treyfall and HE Timothy Evans.
HE Kevin Mullings (50-54 pounds), PRBG’s Jamal Eastman (75-79 pounds) and FYF’s Shawn Michaels (110-117 pounds) all recorded three to nil victories over their respective opponents HE Jakee Cadogan, Rose Hall Jammers (RHJ) Tyrone Lashley and HE Akeem Daniels.
Welterweights Laured Stewart and Ron Smith put on a highly entertaining three-round battle, with Stewart being the more aggressive, while Smith was content to counter punch. Both fighters would have their moments but Stewart would eke out a two to one decision, leaping into the air in excitement when the decision was announced.
Five Star’s Quincy Boyce (118-125 pounds) pressured HE Jamal Archer from the opening bell landing lefts and rights from all angles. Archer would land some of his own and make it out of the first round but Boyce’s relentless pressure prompted the referee to put a halt to proceedings at one minute and 18 seconds in round two.
Cousins Keisha and Alamma Arokium (junior flyweight) from the RHJ had a brief encounter as their matchup ended after the referee stopped the contest in just one minute and 52 seconds in round one in favour of the latter Arokium.
The headline bout ended disappointingly as Romeo Norville from the HE gym was deemed medically unfit to continue his middleweight bout with Guyana Defence Force (GDF) Eon Bancroft after he sustained a cut in his mouth in the second round awarding Bancroft the victory.
There was also an exhibition bout on the 12- bout card between lightweight Stephan Gouveia of HE and GDF’s Bert Braithwaite who is a welterweight.
After the championships, Tournament Director of GABA, Terrence Poole intimated that the event was a successful one as he saw improvements of a lot of the boxers that were on show. Poole also revealed that another championship is scheduled for next month.
Trophies for the winners and runners up were distributed by Director of Sport, Neil Kumar, GABA’s president Steve Ninvalle and female professional boxer Pauline London.
Road to London pugilist Imran ‘Magic’ Khan joint winner of the Junior Sportsman-of-the-Year was in attendance and also received a medal and a token from two of his admirers.
