'Crusher' crushed by Dalton's deadly onslaught
By Michael DaSilva
Stabroek News
December 28, 2003
`Deadly' Denny Dalton and Shondell `Mystery Lady' Alfred were crowned national junior middleweight and bantamweight champions respectively when the Guyana Boxing Board of Control staged its annual Boxing Night `Power Punch' Card at the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall.
Dalton stopped Keith `Crusher' Thomas in the second round of the 12-round contest while Alfred out-boxed Stephanie George over eight rounds to secure a majority decision in the main supporting bout.
Dalton, who weighed in at 154 pounds, caught Thomas (152 pounds) with some telling punches to the body and head in the opening round before finishing off the former junior welterweight champion in round two.
After the fight, Dalton's trainer Donald Allison told Stabroek Sport: "I knew the fight would not have gone the distance but I was surprised that it finished so quickly. Thomas was only a lot of talk. I knew once we [Dalton] stuck to our fight plan we would knock-out Thomas before 12 rounds."
Allison said fight fans can expect a lot from Dalton in the new year. "People will see a lot out of Denny and they will be surprised that Denny can box. A lot of people think he is a slugger, but I will prove to them that he can box. I had wanted the fight to go a bit longer so that people could have seen that Denny can box also."
Prior to fight night, World Boxing Council's cruiser-weight champion, Guyanese Wayne `Big Truck' Braithwaithe had predicted that Dalton would have come out on top. It was Thomas's first fight as a junior middleweight.
The 29-year-old Dalton claimed that by signing to fight him, 34-year-old Thomas bit off more than he could have chewed.
It was also Thomas's first fight in eight months while over the same period, Dalton chalked up two wins. He defeated Barbados's Christopher `Shaka' Henry and Kevin Placide.
In the main supporting bout, Alfred who weighed in at 113 pounds proved that she is the best pound-for-pound female bantamweight boxer in Guyana.
From the opening round, Alfred used her jabs and combinations to keep George (115 pounds) at bay. However, George caught her opponent a few times with some crisp punches of her own.
When the decision was announced, some sections of the small crowd did not find favour with it and made it known by voicing expletives at the top of their voices.
However, Alfred told Stabroek Sports she thought she did well enough to deserve the decision while some people thought otherwise. "Stephanie caught me with one clean punch, but I recovered," Alfred said.
Alfred's trainer Seibert Blake said: "We had the fight covered from round one to eight so we don't care what people say."
This is the 22-year-old Alfred's second victory over George in just over two years. It is also her tenth victory in 11 fights.
In the opening bout on the five-fight card, Ovid Jack (140) and Wayne Briggs (142) fought to a draw over four rounds in their catch-weight contest, while Pamela `Grenade' London (190) secured a points victory over the much heavier Shelly `The Boom' Gibson (238) in a four-round heavyweight contest.
Delon Carew scored a technical knock-out win against Dexter Breedy in a four-round bantamweight contest, after the latter was cut over one eye in the third round.