Marques punishes Zaragga at ‘Locked and Loaded’

By Romario Samaroo

History was made on Sunday night at the Giftland mall, Liliendaal where the first ever Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fights were hosted in Guyana coupled with the pulsating main event boxing match between Dexter ‘The Kid’ Marques and Venezuelan Alberto Zarraga that did not disappoint.
By sunset, the venue had already seen traffic backing up along the main access road all the way to the Rupert Craig Highway, with patrons all excited to enter the arena.
Total carnage was the result at the end of the scheduled 10 rounds of boxing but home town hero Dexter ‘The Kid’ Marques was clearly on his game winning the fight unanimously at 100 points to 84 on all of the judges score sheets in the early hours of Monday morning.
In the 10 rounds of fistic fury, Marques showed little signs of ring rust tearing away the top of Zarraga’s head in the first round but the former WBC champion could not get the strong Venezuelan to take to the mat.
However, it was after 8 rounds of pressure and countless face shots, Zarraga took to the floor from a solid right hook. Zarraga was not calling it quits after putting his body through hell, clearly tired and unable to react fast enough to counter the assault. He managed to last the 10 rounds but the fight was already lost and Marques was back on track to his world title contention. At the end of the fight, Marques in an exclusive interview with this publication attributed his victory to his management team who helped him to come through and pull off the victory while siting his lengthy layoff from the ring.
He also acknowledged his opponent’s skills having lasted the full 10 rounds which saw him take some nasty shots to the face and body. “Everybody expecting me to knock he out in the fifth round but is good to get the experience and go the full 10 rounds cause it is a long time I didn’t fight, over one year now and go over the 10 rounds he is very good but I won, I thank God and this is another win in the record,” ‘The Kid’ said.

At the 20:00h start, fans had already got their money’s worth with the clash of the Rewinne David and Akeela Malazon. Malazon, who hails from Linden showed finesse in her style and tactically correct form to knock out David in just 50 seconds into the fourth round. In the other Amateur clash, Euel Augustine, another Lindener from the Pocket Rocket Gym secured a unanimous decision win over Kelon Issacs.
Meanwhile in the other fights, Imran ‘Magic’ Khan returned to winning ways by beating Keeve Allicock in the six-round lightweight match up. Khan who returned to the ring after calling it quits last year had already pointed out his stamina weakness and knew Allicock would have been capitalizing on it, however the talented Albouystown youth showcased his skills to come out on top.
Allicock was no walkover going toe to toe with Khan and a track record of being a dominant force in the game. Easily the most gruelling match of the night, the two matched punch for punch and eventually went down to points.
Also in the mix, Edmond Declou’s record against Winston Pompey remained unblemished though it was a close fight. Both fighters adding to the list of returning boxers to the ring showed the similar result as the last time these two met but Pompey had shown signs of real improvement. However, the unanimous decision showed Declou was in for his second win over Pompey to add to the draw result the first time they met.