‘The Sniper’ annihilates ‘Big Truck’ as two CABOFE titles exchange hands

In a night of fistic fury, when all of the big talkers were cut down to size, Wayne ‘Big Truck’ Braithwaite, who had earlier referred to Shawn ‘The Sniper’ Cox as garbage, paid dearly for his crass epithet with a first round knockout, while Trinidadian middleweight, Kevin Placide, a slick talker at the prefight press conference, was reduced to nothing, following a systematic beating at the hands of Edmond DeClou.

Despite being subjected to barbs, taunts and threats, also at the above press conference, Miguel Antoine proved once and for all that he is better than Revlon Lake with a lopsided verdict that netted him the super/lightweight version of the CABOFE title moments after Dexter ‘The Kid’ Marques survived a knockdown in the earlier rounds to defeat Orland ‘Pocket Rocket’ Rogers and clinch the flyweight CABOFE title. Elton ‘Coolie Bully’ Dharry was also in winners’ row and needed just 1:55secs to reduce Barbadian, Selwyn Lett to an unworthy contender for the bantamweight version of the CABOFE title.

The fighters were battling at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall (CASH) Saturday evening last for CABOFE championship glory plus a chance to fight in the WBC 50th Anniversary celebrations card later in the year.

On a night where the crowd support was awesome, The ‘Big Truck’ entered the ring, preceded by a huge entourage and accompanied by the roars of the large crowd. His impressive entrance was also characterized by a colourful display of the many accolades procured after years in the ‘square jungle.’ Earlier, the Bajan’s entry was greeted by loud boos with muffled applause from a small section of the crowd.

The training sessions lasted for approximately 8 weeks, the prefight press conference 60 minutes. The weigh in ceremony took just about 30 minutes, while Wayne Braithwaite’s entrance into the ring lasted for all of ten minutes, but in the end all that mattered were those crucial minutes after the bell sounded where Cox bulldozed his man and undid all the hype and fantasy with a brutal display of power punching that left the former World Boxing Council (WBC) cruiserweight champion in a crumpled heap at 1:55secs into the bout.

It was poetic justice for the Bajan who at the pre-fight press conference became incensed after Braithwaite publicly referred to him as garbage. The muscular Bajan had declined from predicting an outcome of the fight until Braithwaite’s demeaning remark which prompted him to spell out the former WBC cruiserweight champion’s fate. “Just for that remark I will knock you out,” Cox had blurted then. True to his word, the Bajan stormed out at the sound of the bell and laced ‘The Truck’ with several vicious salvoes.
Braithwaite attempted to dance out of range but Cox pursued, and trapped him in one of the neutral corners where he unleashed a clubbing blow to Braithwaite’s temple sending ‘The Truck’ to the canvass. He bravely rose and appeared more bewildered than hurt but what followed upon resumption certainly put paid to his chances of revival. Cox waded into his man and unleashed several salvoes that caused the former world champion’s knee to buckle. He crashed to the canvass where the referee read him his final rites before waving the fight off. It was two minutes of brutal savagery that saw Cox retaining his title, while leaving Braithwaite in a crumpled heap with his career in tatters.

Trinidadian, Kevin Placide had mouthed off during the pre-fight press conference and had promised to inflict all manner of punishment to Edmond DeClou. Had he succeeded, he would have lifted the middleweight version of the CABOFE title. It turned out that the Trinidadian was more lip than leathers and after being subjected to nine rounds of systematic pounding, abruptly retired, 85 seconds into the ninth frame. In between that period the brash Trinidadian was punished with head and body shots even though DeClou was a bit off his game, his superiority was never in doubt. The Lindener employed a two fisted mode of attack to keep the southpaw Placide on the back foot while building up the points.

The Trinidadian, who was trailing on all three judges’ score card up to the time of the stoppage, was afforded a glimmer of hope when the referee cited DeClou for rough house tactics earlier in the bout and deducted a point from his score cards. Unruffled, the lanky Lindener continued to build up valuable points after mixing head shots with some vicious salvoes to the Trinidadian’s body.

Even though Placide was obviously tired from the sustained harassment he continued to show some resistance so no one anticipated the abrupt conclusion when, after receiving a right cross and a vicious body shot, the Trinidadian muttered something to the referee who promptly waved the contest off.

It was a disappointing climax to an otherwise entertaining bout.
Barbadian, Selwyn Lett hadn’t a chance and his ambitions of relieving Elton ‘Coolie Bully’ Dharry of his Bantamweight CABOFE title dwindled to naught after the first volley delivered by the USA based Dharry. Less than ten punches after the first bell sounded, Lett fell to the canvass and even the uninitiated knew for sure he had lost all interest in reentering the fray.

Shawn ‘The Sniper’ Cox celebrates with his corner personnel following the devastating victory.

He did though, but the act was more of naivety than courage and Dharry, after pinning him into the red corner pounded him into the ropes where he fell. Referee, Frankie Brisport jumped in and needed only a cursory glance at Lett’s glazed eye to wave the bout off at 1:55secs into the fight.
Dexter Marques continued his dominance over Orland Rogers, registering a unanimous verdict in their flyweight encounter and walked off with that CABOFE crown. The squatty Rogers never really presented any real threat to Marques except in the 5th round when he lashed out and dumped him to the canvass. Marques rose, more surprised than hurt and went on to outbox, outfight and outpoint his man. Andrew Thorne scored it 118-109, while Orin Hart and Rawle Aaron saw the bout 116-111 in favour of Marques.

The general mood of festivity that had permeated the commencement of the card right up to the main preliminary affair where local boy DeClou, prevailed, set the stage for an action packed main bout. Fans settled down for the promised slugfest between the Bajan giant and his Guyanese counterpart. Some ventured to look away for the briefest moment, only to miss the 90 brutal seconds it took to park the ‘Big Truck.’ ‘Incensed and disappointed,’ strong sentiments as they are, hardly begin to describe the general view of the fans as the trudged out of the arena.



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