By Emmerson Campbell
A thunderous right hand by Clive ‘Wonder Kid’ Atwell brought the crowd at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall to its feet Friday last at the staging of the 25th edition of the Guyana Boxing Board of Control (GBBC) Guyana Fight Night Pro Am card.
At two minutes, 55 seconds of the fifth round, the vicious right-hand connected to the jaw of Revlon Lake, crumpling him to the canvas, while sending the small crowd into frenzy.
To the surprise of those in attendance, the Barbados-based Lake, who was clearly hurt and dazed after a barrage of head shots, beat the referee’s mandatory count. However, Lake’s corner had seen enough and wisely threw in the towel.
“The plan was to stick and move, stick and move, jab, jab work the jab and I realized he could not handle the jab. When the jab would hit him his head would pop back and then he left his left side open,” Atwell said in a post fight interview with Stabroek Sport.
“From round one and through rounds four and five I realized he was going so I started to double up on the power shots to the head and you saw what happened. He could not take them and he ended up on the canvas and the corner said enough is enough.”
In the first three rounds both fighters had their moments landing effective punches to the head and body of their opponent.
From round four (the round Lake had predicted to knock out Atwell) however, Atwell caught Lake repeatedly with stiff jabs and hard counterpunches after Lake missed wildly. Lake was hurt but survived to fight another round.
On two occasions in the fifth frame Lake lost his mouth guard after he was caught with flush right hands to the chin. Lake was clearly hurt by Atwell’s assault and it was just a matter of time before Atwell finished the job which he did seconds later.
When asked to describe the punch that floored Lake, the’ Wonder Kid’ said “It was an over hand right on the button.”
The headline bout of the card saw Atwell, the local featherweight champion and national lightweight title Holder Lake fighting an eight- round junior lightweight contest.
Atwell improves his unblemished record to six wins and one draw while Lake’s record drops to six wins, seven losses and two draws.
The Dominica-based Atwell who left Guyana yesterday said he will be returning in September to be part of that month’s card.
In arguably the most entertaining and punch-filled bout on the professional card, Richard Williamson started his professional career on a positive note by unanimously defeating fellow debutant Dylan Allicock.
The two bantamweights stood toe-to-toe and traded punches in a fierce fistic battle, However, the three judges all scored the four-round fight in favour of Williamson a Pocket Rocket gym product 39-38, 40-36 and 38-37.
Williamson’s gym mate 22-year-old Kishawn Simon was also making his professional debut. However, he was not as fortunate as his fellow Berbician as he dropped a majority verdict to 43-year-old Patrick Boston.
In the catch weight bout where there was more holding than punches, Boston won the four-round waltz 38-38, 39-38 and 39-38.
With the loudly protested win, Boston secured his first professional victory after four tries.
Meanwhile, Gladwin Dorway chalked up his second KO victory in as many fights when he floored Anson Green for the full count with crunching right hand to jaw.
Dorway used his superior punching power to put and end to the scheduled four-round junior welterweight fight at two minutes, 24 seconds of round three.
Both Dorway and Green had debut victories over David Thomas.
On the amateur segment of the card, Christopher Tinnerman, Tefon Green, Shaka Moore and Romeo Norville all recorded victories over their respective opponents.
Tinnerman (70-74 pounds)and Green (90-94 pounds) defeated Kevon Mullings and Albert Thomas respectively while Moore (94-99 pounds) and Norville (middleweight) Ryan Sumner and Ron Smith in that order.
Representatives of Courts Incorporated shared out food hampers to eight amateur boxers.
Digicel created a frenzy at intermission when representatives of the phone company shared out top ups and other gifts to random patrons.
The next boxing card is scheduled for Thirst Park on September 2. That event is expected to be headlined by former WBC cruiserweight champion Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite.
The monthly card is an initiative of the GBBC in collaboration with the Sports Ministry and the National Communications Network (NCN). Sponsors of the event include Digicel, Giftland Office Max, Courts, Banks DIH Limited and Ansa McAL.
