Je­lani Beck­les

It was 'punch­es in bunch­es' at the sec­ond leg of the Tues­day Night Box­ing Se­ries event where na­tion­al box­er Aaron Prince led T&T to a strong show­ing against their Caribbean coun­ter­parts from Guyana and St Lu­cia at Bri­an Lara's res­i­dence at La­dy Chan­cel­lor Hill, Port-of-Spain, on Tues­day night.

The three-leg se­ries which ends next week Tues­day, is be­ing host­ed by the T&T Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion in col­lab­o­ra­tion with LAY Man­age­ment Group and the Pearl and Bun­ty Lara Foun­da­tion and sanc­tioned by the Trinidad and To­ba­go Box­ing Board of Con­trol.

T&T Olympic hope­ful Prince de­feat­ed Lyn­dell Mar­cellin of St Lu­cia on points lead­ing T&T to vic­to­ry in four of the five in­ter­na­tion­al bouts. Michael Alexan­der, An­tho­ny Joseph and Justin Par­ris al­so won their re­spec­tive fights for the host in their three-round bouts con­test. St Lu­cian Arthur Lan­ge­li­er was the on­ly vis­i­tor to win on the night, de­feat­ing T&T box­er Romel Leza­ma in a 75 kg bout.

Cen­tral Amer­i­can and Caribbean Games bronze medal­list Prince showed his ag­gres­sive in­tent from the open­ing bell, pin­ning Mar­cellin on the ropes in the first ten sec­onds of the fight and un­leash­ing a bar­rage of punch­es. Lat­er in the first round in the op­po­site cor­ner, Mar­cellin was trapped again and had to en­dure an­oth­er vi­cious at­tack from the T&T box­er.

Mar­cellin had a stronger sec­ond round land­ing some punch­es. Prince, how­ev­er, who kept con­trol of the fight pinned the St Lu­cian on the ropes in the third round lead­ing to a vic­to­ry on points.

In a 60kg con­test, Com­mon­wealth bronze medal­list Alexan­der utilised his sol­id de­fence and long reach to over­haul Joel Williamson of Guyana on points.

The on­ly ju­nior bat­tle on the card brought ex­cite­ment to the spec­ta­tors when Justin Par­ris (T&T) and Trevon El­cock (Guyana) bat­tled in the last fight. The bout did not last long, as Par­ris won by a tech­ni­cal knock­out one minute in­to the con­test.

Next week Tues­day the T&T box­ers will bat­tle their Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic coun­ter­parts in the fi­nal leg of the Tues­day Night Box­ing at the Cas­tle.

BOUTS

LO­CAL BOUTS

69kg bout - Yuri Sorzano def Kyleron Ruiz on points

64kg - Jean Paul Coop­er def Jesse Beck­les on points

69kg - Chris­t­ian Mc­Don­ald def Joseph George on points

81kg+ - Rachel Williams def Chrys­tal Thomas on points

IN­TER­NA­TION­AL BOUTS

75kg - Arthur Lan­ge­li­er (St Lu­cia) def Romel Leza­ma (T&T) - Tech­ni­cal Knock­out

60kg - Michael Alexan­der (T&T) def Joel Williamson (Guy) on points

56kg - An­tho­ny Joseph (T&T) def Ja­mal East­man (Guy) on points

69kg - Aaron Prince (T&T) def Lyn­dell Mar­cellin (St Lu­cia) on points

60kg - Justin Par­ris (T&T) def Trevor El­cock (Guy) - Tech­ni­cal Knock­out