T&T box­er Michael Alexan­der claimed a com­pre­hen­sive vic­to­ry 4-0 on points against Cos­ta Ri­ca's Ed­uar­do Sanchez Ramirez on the open­ing day of the In­de­pen­dence Cup in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic on Thurs­day night.

Alexan­der was the lone T&T fight­er to en­ter the ring on the day as the team wear­ing red, white and black pre­pared for a hec­tic 2019 sea­son that com­pris­es the Olympic qual­i­fiers.

He was among just three box­ers that made the trip, hop­ing to bet­ter the per­for­mances of a two-man T&T team that went to the Patrick Ford In­vi­ta­tion­al Tour­na­ment in Guyana over the last week­end and were beat­en.

How­ev­er, on Thurs­day, Alexan­der got the nod from four out of five judges on hand in the light wel­ter­weight con­test ((64kg), with just one judge Ana Mar­tinez call­ing the con­test a draw, 28-each.

Alexan­der who just missed out on a qual­i­fy­ing spot for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games, claimed the win 29-27 by judges Max­i­mo Cordero, Miguel Ro­driguez, Ley­la Si­mon and Juan Patri­cio to seal the win.

In an­oth­er wel­ter­weight fight, Ecuador's Gabri­er Jose Tem­no­rio de­feat­ed Patri­cio Couzens of Cana­da 5-0 and Abra­ham Mo­ra Carderon of Cos­ta Ri­ca got the bet­ter of Guatemala's Daniel Car­los Romero by a sim­i­lar 5-0 mar­gin.

Home­town hero Ro­han Polan­co was al­so in win­ner's row 5-0 over Patri­cio Aqulera of Chile 5-0 while Do­mini­ca's Hen­ri Ce­de­no tri­umphed over Manuel Sosa by a sim­i­lar 5-0 mar­gin. T&T box­ers Nigel Paul and Tian­na Guy were sched­uled to be in ac­tion last night.