A big crowd turned up at Cling Cling Football Oval in the Olympic Gardens community for the seven-card bout dubbed “Fight Night”, which was staged under the Gloves Over Guns programme last Saturday.

The event was held in the middle of the football field that was the stomping ground of former Reggae Boy and Olympic Gardens player Ian “Pepe” Goodison, who serves as president of the football club.

The card featured six amateur fights and one professional fight which went to Headley “Lights Out” Scott, by way of unanimous decision, over Toriano Nicholas. The three judges scored the fight 60-54, 60-53 and 60-54.

The fighters came into the ring almost evenly matched as light welterweights. Scott, who is Jamaican but currently fights out of the Atlanta Boxing Gym in the United States, weighed in at 135 pounds while Nicholas was 134 pounds. But the similarity ended there as Scott boasted 17 wins and one loss before Saturday to Nicholas’s one win, three losses and one draw.

Referee Owen Nelson had his hands full separating the boxers during the punishing six rounds in which Nicholas appeared to be a punching bag at times, as Scott was relentless with his jabs. He did not take a break for a moment to rest during the six rounds.

The scorecard showed that he won all six rounds convincingly and it seemed that the majority of the crowd agreed with the judges.

“I appreciate him coming to show up to fight me. He was a tough opponent; I had to box him. I feel pretty good after the fight; I don’t feel like I took any bad blows so I feel great” said Scott.

Nicholas, on the other hand, said: “It looked like I took a lot of punches [but] everything was defence. As you can see no injury, nothing at all. Look at his face, it’s bleeding. I did no training for this six-round [fight]. I came on at short notice from last night to take this six-round to put up a good fight, so imagine if I was training — I would have stopped him.”

The fight night started with Suga Knockout Gym’s two youngest boxers on the card, who were fighting competitively for the first time. Ten-year-old Howard Levy and 13-year-old Alex Grant went the distance of their three rounds. Levy put up a spirited fight but Grant got the better of him by virtue of a longer reach and a bit more boxing skill.

The second fight of the night saw Shaine Bake of Combat Sports and Michel Bernard, out of the newly launched Top Level Boxing Gym in Montego Bay, going the distance with the former coming out the winner.

The lone female match-up between featherweight fighters Sherikee Moore of Suga Knockout and debutante Damara Bowen of Top Level was stopped one minute and six seconds in round three when the doctor determined that Bowen could not continue. Moore impressed many, including Gibbs Williams, vice-principal of G C Foster College of Physical Education and Sport, who offered her a scholarship after the fight.

Moore was happy with her performance.

“It was very good from my end. I was expecting to win, I came with the mentality to win. It was at short notice about the fight but I still pull through. I trained for a few days and I did what I had to tonight, and I am very proud of myself. This is my first win out of COVID and I am very excited,” she said.

G C Foster’s Tomere Pearson lost to Kirk Patrick Heron of Suga Knochout Gym in a light heavyweight match-up. Action was fierce between the boxers but Heron appeared fitter throughout the three rounds as he landed more punches.

Top Level Gym’s supporters were very happy to go home with a win when Kevon McKenzie won his fight over John Lewis of Stanley Couch Gym. Referee Kevin Stupart stopped the fight at two minutes and 58 seconds in round two of the middleweight bout.

In the final amateur fight of the night, Commonwealth Games-bound Daniel Hylton of Stanley Couch Gym made easy work of Juezier Heron (of Suga Knockout) in their lightweight match-up even though it went the distance of three rounds.

“My performance was not bad. It could have been much better but I just wanted to take it easy tonight. It’s a good workout; take off a lot of work off me for I have not been in the ring for a while now so I am pretty much satisfied with my performance. This fight shows me where I am at and what I need to work on going into the Commonwealth Games,” Hylton said.