US amateurs top Mandeville card
Exciting amateur boxing was on show last Saturday night when PP Productions promoted the second ProAm card at the Manchester High School, in Mandeville, featuring six boxers from Miami going up against Jamaicans in the amateur section of the programme.
In the second half of the show, there were three professional bouts, and an exhibition featuring 2017 Contender champion Sakima Mullings and Winston Pompey from Guyana.
There was controversy surrounding the Mullings versus Pompey encounter, which was earlier in the week not approved by the Jamaica Boxing Board. It was later allowed to take place as an exhibition, at the request of the promoters, since they had already purchased the airline ticket for Pompey.
The reasons given by the board were the weight disparity and the records of the boxers. Mullings is a welterweight (147 pounds), with a 27-3 win-loss record, while Pompey is a middleweight (160 pounds), with a record of three wins, 13 losses, nine by knockout and three draws. He also had already lost to Mullings.
Mullings was unhappy at the downgrade, however, and this was a distraction on a night when surprisingly, the amateur boxers produced much better performances than their professional counterparts.
The exhibition ended in the second round, and showed that the encounter was in fact a mismatch, because, in that round, Pompey was floored by the first hard punch that he received from Mullings, and referee Peter Richards called it off immediately.
FINAL AMATEUR BOUT
The American amateurs came out the winners 4-2, but it could well have been a 3-3-outcome, as in the final amateur bout, heavyweight Omar Campbell from Jamaica dropped a close decision to his American opponent Gasper Pierre. It was one round each going into the final round, and Pierre landed more effective punches than Campbell and took the decision.
The best of the professional bouts was a four rounder between Richard Holmes and Kevin Hylton, which Holmes won by unanimous decision. Glenroy ‘Bumpy’ Beckford lost on points to Jevaune James from the USA and Andre Sloley, making his pro debut, did not come out for the second round in his bout against Luis Rivera.
The promoters took time out to honour Richard ‘Shrimpy’ Clarke, a former outstanding and popular professional boxer for his many years of service to the sport.