By Michaelangelo Jacobus
Guyana’s amateur boxers shone brightly last night under the lights at the newly renovated, albeit, not quite finished Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH), much to the delight of the large crowd present.
While four amateur bouts were scheduled as the undercard for the Elton Dharry versus Randy Ramirez main event, only three came off, as one of amateur boxers was forced to pull out last minute due to health issues.
The night opened with a good old fashioned ‘cuff-out’ between schoolgirls Destiny Humphrey and Kenisha Klass in a three-round firecracker.
While both youngsters traded punches in bunches, Klass, fighting out of the red corner did just enough to clinch a split decision win.
The second bout saw Guyana’s Ken Harvey put on a boxing clinic to resign his Trinidadian opponent Darnell Sinaswee to a unanimous victory with the judges scoring all three rounds in the Guyanese’ favour. The early stages of the first round saw Sinaswee taking an aggressive approach with a flurry of jabs and hooks before Harvey stormed back with body shots and counterpunches of his own to almost drop the Trinidadian in the closing seconds of that round.
By the next round, both boxers were visibly tired and despite copping some heavy blows, Sinaswee came back in a closely contested second round, however, Harvey would again take control with his superior reach giving him the advantage to land his jabs to sway things back in his favour.
In the third and final round, Harvey subjected the Trinidadian to three minutes of punishment, punching Sinaswee into two standing counts enroute to clinching a decisive unanimous victory despite Sinaswee’s brief resurgence in the prior round. Fittingly, the undercard closed out with an entertaining female bout as Barbados’ Kemara Stuart faced Abiola Jackman of Guyana. Despite the final result which saw Jackman running out the unanimous winner, Stuart put on a heartening display.
The professional fights were yet to begin at press time, with four bouts slated with the main event Dharry vs Ramirez while Keevin Allicock and Dexter Wray was the supporting fight.