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Denham Town community boxing card a success

Published:Tuesday | October 16, 2018 | 12:00 AMLeroy Brown/Gleaner Writer
Referee Kevin Stupart raises the hand of light flyweight boxer Vinroy Coke of Denham Town after his victory over Champaigne Boxill from Tivoli Gardens on the Jamaica Boxing Board’s Gloves over Guns Community Boxing Card on October 6.

Hundreds of youngsters and their parents from West Kingston filled the Denham Town Community Centre to capacity recently as the Jamaica Boxing Board had a successful launch of its Gloves over Guns community boxing programme, with five boxers from the Unity and Peace organisation trading punches with boxers from the St Thomas Boxing Club, Sugar Olympic gym and the Oracabessa gym.

Boxing Board president Stephen Jones and Fight for Peace Country Lead Kellie Magnus told The Gleaner that they were thrilled at how the first of a projected five shows went off. Jones said, "This was a great start to the programme, and we are hoping to have a show every six weeks in the various communities in Kingston that are the focus groups for the programme."

The next show he said will be in Montego Bay next month, and in 2019, shows will be held in the various areas in which the Fight for Peace programme is now running.

Magnus said that she was "very happy at how well the show went off, and how the people in the area had bought into the idea. They made it a success, and as a result of what happened on Saturday, 12 new youngsters have already signed up for the boxing programme, and this is fantastic. We hope to build on this enthusiasm and move forward over the next several months" she added.

 

HARD-FOUGHT VICTORY

 

In the ring, the winners for Unity and Peace were Tavoy Miller, and Kirt Thompson, and their victories were cheered wildly by their supporters. Miller scored a unanimous decision over Anthony Burke from the St Thomas Boxing Club. His team-mate Thompson then had a hard-fought victory over another St Thomas boxer, Rhamone Chung. This was the most keenly contested bout on the card, and Thompson won by split decision after three bruising rounds of boxing.

In other bouts, Kevin Brown from Sugar Olympic gym defeated Unity and Peace boxer Jaheime Henry, Arnold Anderson from the St Thomas Boxing Club defeated

Tai Chambers from Unity and Peace and Marvin Shirley of Oracabessa gym defeated Kymani Dennis in the final bout of the night.

There was also one contest between two Unity and Peace boxers. Vinroy Coke, who is from Denham Town had his supporters cheering wildly, as he outboxed Champaigne Boxill from Tivoli Gardens. Coke possesses good boxing skills, and is thought of highly by his coaches.