BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AMATEUR boxing brought an electric atmosphere to Sandy Point on Saturday night (June 7) when St. Kitts battled to a 1-1 draw against Anguilla in an inter-island clash.
Hosted by the youth group Sandy Pointers Inspiring Real Improvement Throughout (SPIRIT), a six-bout card drew hundreds of persons from throughout the community and around the island to witness the revival of the sweet science in the Federation.
The evening started off with four exhibition fights on the undercard, two boxing and two kickboxing. Facing off first was 144 lb Darrell Weekes against the 140 lb Alex Bergen in a three-round kickboxing bout.
Being the taller man, Weekes controlled the pace of the action in the first round and steadily delivered kicks to his opponent’s legs to slow his advances. He was also able to win most of the grapples Bergen intiated. Round two was much of the same and quickly came to an end when Weekes caught a straight kick from Bergen and converted the single-leg takedown into a chokehold that caused Bergen to tap out.
The second match of the evening was a much closer affair between kickboxers Kenny Boyles and Liddie Stevens. Boyles was the aggressor early on, working his jab effectively to feel out Stevens and close the gap for some solid takedowns in the first two rounds, but Stevens repeatedly countered when the action went to the canvas. With both men exhausted by the third round, Stevens finally went for the victory by trying to get Boyles to tap out, but he withheld to the final bell and the match was declared a draw.
A 155 lb Dimitri Browne starred in the third bout against Kleion Mike, who weighed in at 147 lb for the welterweight fight. Mike worked the jab early, but failed to connect on his power punches in the first round. Meanwhile, Browne gave up very little ground as he approached with a squared stance and delivered several straight lefts that slowed Mike down.
In round two, a right cross from Browne rocked Mike and left him scrambling to slow the pace of the fight. Though he was able to get inside and clinch often, Mike continued to take punishment and the referee stopped the bout around the two minute mark of round two, declaring Browne the victor by technical knockout.
The final exhibition of the evening was an even more lopsided affair as Adrian Williams knocked out Serffert Vaughn seconds into the second round. Williams towered over Vaughn and greatly outweighed him, but the smaller man fought with heart as he attempted to use his speed to offset the size difference. Moments into the second round, however, Vaughn’s headgear came off and opened the opportunity for a clean right cross from Williams to send him tumbling to the canvas for the ten count.
With the undercard completed and the crowd at the Sandy Point Hard Court reaching capacity, the evening’s main event began with a junior welterweight bout between Anguilla’s Cecil Hodge and St. Kitts’ DeJaun Julius. Hodge was the slightly heavier man at 140.5 lbs, whereas Julius came in at an even 139, but the real difference between the men proved to be their aggression.
Hodge opened the first round swinging and eager to prove Anguilla’s boxing superiority. Julius was slow on his feet and was caught off guard by the early onslaught, taking a three power punch combination in the latter part of the first round that sent him reeling into his corner. Hodge pressed the attack and showed no signs of relenting when the match doctor stopped the fight, thus making Hodge the winner by technical knockout.
Anguilla’s fans celebrated wildly and held the momentum going into the evening’s final fight, a light-heavyweight clash between Keithley Richardson of Anguilla and Alex Lewis of St. Kitts.
Both men came in at 166 lbs and had fairly even reaches, making for easily the most exciting fight of the night. Lewis scored early in the first round with a superior jab that allowed him to get inside for a few bigger punches. However, Richardson was eventually able to land a straight right that hurt Lewis before the bell.
The Anguillan stormed out of his corner and laid into Lewis throughout the second round. Lewis was visibly winded after a few solid body shots from Richardson and the Kittitian’s hands began to drop, opening more opportunities for the former to score upstairs.
The final round saw both men laying it out for the fans despite being exhausted. Richardson was much more active, but failed to connect with many of his punches. Meanwhile, Lewis effectively counterpunched and was able to get a quick knockdown.
Richardson was not hurt and came out after the standing eight count to keep up the pressure on Lewis, but the Anguillan was docked yet another point later in the round due to his trainer standing on the side of the ring after being warned to stop several times.
After much deliberation, Lewis was declared the winner of the fight, with judges Peter Coury and Justin Moses scoring in his favor 28/26 and 27/26 respectively, while Tristlay Bassue scored it as a draw, 28/28.
The exciting conclusion left the fans thirsty for more and SPIRIT officials stated their interest in hosting a similar event sometime in the future.
St. Kitts Amateur Boxing Association President Wycliffe John also said he hopes the event would spark a revival of boxing in the Federation and he hinted at plans to open a number of gyms on both islands very soon.
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