WALTER ALIBEY
An outstanding display in the ring by Brendon Dennis from Willpower Boxing Gym earned him the right to be a gold medal winner at the National Boxing Championships held at Cosmic Boxing Gym, Marabella on Sunday.
Dennis who defeated Marinus Coutain of Fineline Fight Factory 3-0 in the Elite Men’s 91kg final contest has been highlighted as an emerging talent and a potential for selection on the national team to compete at the Caribbean Boxing Championship in Barbados next month.
Cecil Forde, president of the T&T Amateur Boxing Association said all winners will be considered for selection on the national team which already comprises Olympic boxer Nigel Paul, Aaron Prince, the local middleweight champion, and last year’s light welterweight winner Michael Alexander.
Apart from Dennis, a number of fighters also caught the eyes of selectors, including Potential Boxing Gym’s Kyleron Ruiz, Romel Lezama of the Youth Training Centre (YTC) and Nyrell Hosein of the Biomel Boxing Gym, during the programme which started on Friday.
Fighting in the 64kg division, Ruiz claimed the gold medal after whipping Raheem Felix of Golden Fist by TKO on the final day of the championship Sunday. Lezama was an outright winner against Terron Diaz (Trumpet Boxing Gym) in the 75kg contest also, although the fight went to the judges for a decision and Hosein dominated his fight, beating Edwin Felix of East Port of Spain 3-0 in the 52kg final for the gold.
Also on Sunday Anthony Ravello of the YTC Conquerors got the better of Mike Innis (Biomel) 2-1 for the gold medal in the Men’s Elite 60kg and Angelique Quevedo (Potential) pulled off a similar 2-1 victory over Tessa Hopson of Cosmic in a 51kg fight.
Boxing coach Reynold Cox said he was pleased with the talent he saw at the championship, particularly Hosein, who at the age of just 13 years, gave a display that was reminiscent of the country’s top senior boxers.
Other performances
Moses Dempster (East Port of Spain bt Biomel’s Khatlin James in the 60kg fight 3-0
Joshua Sylvester (Biomel) bt Josiah Hunte of (YTC) in the 69kg bout 3-0
Tyrone St Clair (Sandcity Boxing Emporium) bt Tyron Thomas 2-1 in the Junior Boys 80kg
Nickell Joseph (Sand City) bt Kevin Gonzales (Cosmic) by TKO
Onila Ramdhanie (East Port of Spain) bt Aleisha King (Sand City) in the 51kg division 3-0.