Boxing News of Monday, 7 July 2003

Source: GNA

Yartey wins featherweight division fight

Cape Coast, July 7, GNA-Jonathan Yartey of Accra, on Saturday night defied a massive support of Cape Coast boxing fans to beat Ali Alabi of Cape on points in their eight rounds featherweight championship fight at the Top Yard Cinema Hall in Cape Coast. The tournament, organised by the Cape Coast Walker King Promotions was designed to rekindle the people's interest in the sport. Both boxers, started on a fast note and traded even punches from the first to the fourth round but Yartey had the edge from the fifth round as he landed left and right hooks to the mid-section of Alabi.

Alabi, finding the going very tough, adopted the hit and run tactics to avoid the devastating blows of his opponent. Yartey however chased him round the ring and landed more hefty blows in an effort to knock out his opponent out but Alabi managed to stay on his feet until the end of the final round.

In the amateur contest, Central Region confirmed their superiority over Western Region, by beating them 2-1 thus reversing an earlier 4-3 defeat the region suffered during a tournament which took place in Takoradi two months ago. Nana Benya Bee of Cape Coast stopped his opponent, Michael Sowah, of Takoradi in the first round of their Bantamweight contest while Peter

Chubby of Cape Coast was declared the winner in the second round when his opponent, Ghana Mohammed, was disqualified for persistent fouling in their featherweight contest. In the lightweight contest, Soga Abley of Takoradi, was declared winner in the second round when Solomon Nkrumah of Cape Coast was disqualified for a similar offence. An appeal for funds in aid of Sam Akromah, one time Commonwealth Champion during the tournament yielded 1.3 million cedis.