Don­nel Phillip and Nevin By­er were sched­uled to clash in a re­peat of last year’s 67kg Elite di­vi­sion show­down of the Na­tion­al Box­ing Cham­pi­onships at the South­ern Re­gion­al In­door Sports Are­na, Pleas­antville on Thurs­day (Jan­u­ary 23) night.

The two were re­unit­ed in the fi­nal af­ter Phillip, a rep­re­sen­ta­tive for T&T’s red, white and black at the Olympic Qual­i­fiers last year, pulled off a com­fort­able unan­i­mous de­ci­sion vic­to­ry over Shalome Phillip on Thurs­day night.

The bout was ex­pect­ed to be the fea­ture fight on the night with the win­ner earn­ing the right to square-off in a con­test with a Guyanese fight­er tonight. By­er who lost last year’s fi­nal on points will be com­ing to ex­act re­venge af­ter re­ceiv­ing a bye in­to the fi­nal as there were not many fight­ers in that di­vi­sion.

Ac­cord­ing to the T&T Box­ing As­so­ci­a­tion’s head coach Vic­ki Boodram, the fight lived up to its billing, how­ev­er, oth­er fight­ers gave good show­ings that caught my at­ten­tion. One is Aiden Ram­paul of the EBB gym who gave a dis­play of classy box­ing un­der coach Reynold Cox, to de­feat Dar­rious Pitt.

“ It was a dis­play of good tech­nique and skill etc that I re­al­ly en­joyed that (Aiden Ram­paul/Dar­rious Pitt) fight, it was per­fect box­ing by Ram­paul. I think there were al­so good show­ings from Shi­va Toolsie and Nicholas El­liott,” Boodram said. Boodram, a for­mer box­er, has been giv­en the re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to chart the way for­ward for T&T box­ing at the elite lev­el, as well as pre­pare a team for the new Olympic cy­cle. She told Guardian Me­dia Sports that it would take more than box­ers win­ning the na­tion­al cham­pi­onships to earn a place on the team, for in­stance, good at­ti­tude and dis­ci­pline would be as­sets.

Toolsie, the na­tion­al kick­box­ing cham­pi­on showed his class against Liej Hem Lee of the ELFF gym on Thurs­day by win­ning his con­test by a split de­ci­sion to cruise in­to the fi­nal tonight. Ram­paul al­so got the bet­ter of Dy­lan Dukhan to ad­vance to the next phase of the cham­pi­onships.

Day 2 Re­sults

71kg Novice

Ray­mond James (EFC) win­ner walkover vs. Je­re­mi­ah James (YBG)

60kg Novice

1. Shi­va Toolsie (EBG) win­ner points vs. Li­jer Hem Lee (FLFF)

63.5kg Novice

2. Aiden Ram­paul (EBB) win­ner points vs. Dar­rious Pitt (TEB)

67kg Novice

3. Chris­t­ian Williams (SBG) vs. Ma­tias Her­nan­dez FLFF win­ner

4. Akeem Jack (GFB) vs. Zachary Gon­za­les (HFB) win­ner points

75kg Novice

5. Nicholas El­liott (HFB) win­ner RSC vs. Xavier Cam­phell (TEB)

86kg Novice

6. Ron­del Oliv­er (HFB) win­ner RSC vs. Dy­lan Dukhan (EBG)

67kg Elite

8. Don­nel Phillip HFB win­ner points vs. Shalome Phillip (GFB)

FRI­DAY'S CARD

63kg Novice

1. Joshua Rogers (SBGT) vs. Aiden Ram­paul EBB

2. Cy­lon Phillips (YBG) vs. Steven Her­bert (UA)

71kg Novice

3. Ask­ia Jr Her­bert (UA) vs. Ray­mond James EFC

4. Je­re­my Mo­hamed (EBG) vs. De­on Car­ring­ton (CBG)

75kg Novice

5. Jabari Chan­dler (FYL) vs. Nicholas El­liott HFB

6. Josi­ah Dai­ly (YBG) lvs. Criston Gomez (DSB)

7. Mark Ram­s­ingh (FLFF) vs. Je­vaughn Ballinton (TEB)

8. Naushard Ail (EBG) vs. Alexi Mc Deigan (EBB)

92+kg Novice

9. Aaron Git­tens (HBG) vs. Kestell Ra­madas EBG

10. Sime­on Williams (FLFF) vs. Joshua Belle (GFB)

75kg Youth

11. Ni­rav Ba­booram (FLFF) vs. Luke Teas­dale CBG

12. Zade Williams CBG. vs Paul Newal­lo (CBG)

67kg Elite

13. Nevin By­er IC. vs. Don­nel Phillip HFB