Results from Nigh of champions in Beautiful Barbados:

[Samuel Layne]

'Hands' by TKO
Published on: 6/3/08.

TALENTED Miguel "Hands of Stone" Antoine is the WBC's Caribbean Boxing Federation's (CABOFE) super lightweight champion.

The former St Lucy Secondary student overcame the wily Trinidadian pugilist Learie Bruce via a technical knockout (TKO) one minute,nine seconds into the fifth round.

Antoine was the stronger fighter throughout, though at times frustrated by his initial inability to land solid combinations. But when he did find his target, there were some crunching blows that often reverberated around the Wildey Gymnasium on Sunday night.

He was particularly effective with his body attack, often doubling up on the left hook to Bruce's body. It was one such combination in the fourth round that put Bruce on the canvas for the first time.

In the fifth, a right cross and a left uppercut found their mark to the jaw and the body and Bruce went down to his knees for the final time.

The second feature bout was a big disappointment. Shawn Terry Cox won the WBC CABOFE cruiserweight crown without breaking a sweat against Ricardo Kellman. Kellman threw a punch and then took a blow on the left elbow and the fight was over in under two minutes of the first round.

Kellman appeared to be in pain, gingerly clutching his left elbow when the fight was stopped.

Julian Tannis spent the four rounds of his middleweight encounter trying to mimic adhesive tape. He constantly grabbed the promising Kevin Stapleton around the waist, probably confusing the latter that he wanted to dance rather than box. Thankfully, Stapleton didn't dance and landed enough punches to get a majority points decision in what was an ugly encounter.

Ricardo Blackman and Gardel Roberts provided the most entertainment for the night. Blackman constantly pegged Roberts in the early stages of their four-round featherweight bout with solid one-two combinations and the occasional sneaky left hook. But Roberts kept coming forward and landed a few solid punches. An over-hand right followed by a left cross nearing the bell in the third round from Blackman and Roberts' eyes were seemingly looking in opposite directions as he went down.

Jamaica's super bantamweight Rudolph Hedge defeated Ryan Weekes and Cleveland Frazier easily beat Pedro Skeete in a light heavyweight match-up.(WG)