Amateur boxers impress as GABA stages evaluation tournament
Diwani Lampkin of the Forgotten Youth Foundation (FYF) survived a two point
Lampkin (r) goes after Hollingsworth during their light/flyweight encounter
deduction and rebounded with a 2-1 victory over archrival, Matthew Hollingsworth of the Five Star Boxing Gym when the two light/flyweights clashed in the Guyana Amateur Boxing Association (GABA) tournament dubbed ‘National Trials Championships’ at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) Friday evening last.
When these two pugilists last faced off at the January edition of the ProAm boxing cards, Lampkin had employed a two fisted attack to overwhelm Hollingsworth and Friday night’s encounter was regarded as a grudge match. Both pugilists went after each other from the first gong and during the heated exchanges Lampkin was cited for infringing the rules. A similar infringement saw the referee deducting a point from his score.
Hollingsworth continued to attack relentlessly in the second stanza with Lampkin electing to box around while unleashing an occasional flurry. Somewhere around mid round Lampkin’s mouthpiece fell to the ground that elicited a warning from the third man. Shortly afterwards, he repeated the act and had another point deducted from his score. Buoyed by the referee’s decision, Hollingsworth upped the ante and pushed Lampkin backwards with several ramrod punches. The latter pugilist refused to say die and countered with a barrage of his own. The fight ended as it had commenced with both boxers engaged in furious exchanges. The judges subsequently ruled that Lampkin was the better man.
Shawn Michael (l) backs Dequan James into the ropes en route to a 3-0 verdict
In all there were 7 bouts with 3 of them finishing inside the distance. Kevin Mullings of the Harpy Eagles Boxing Gym (HEBG) forced the referee to halt his 50-54lbs contest against his gym mate, Moses Oxford in 53secs of the first frame, while Kurt Allicock (FYF) emulated his act against Pocket Rocket boxing gym representative, Shaquille Simon. That bout lasted up to 1:02secs of the first frame.
Royan Sumner of the Five Star boxing gym (FSBG) only needed 35secs of the first round to convince Tefon Greene (HEBG) that he was in the wrong place.
The other results read: Delroy Trefall (FSBG) won 2-1 over Kevon Mullings (HEBG); Elijah Inshanally (HEBG) won by a similar margin over James Walcott (HEBG), while Shawn Michael (FYF) defeated Dequan James (FSBG) by a 3-0 verdict.
The tournament was specially organized by executives of GABA to evaluate the progress of those pugilists shortlisted for imminent overseas engagement. A GABA official stated that the ploy enabled the selectors to ascertain progress of the selected boxers with an aim of making adjustments wherever necessary. The finals were staged last evening.
