Laatekwei Hammond last Friday exhibited a lot of guts and resilience to withstand hard knocks from lion-hearted Stephen Okine to snatch the national super lightweight title at the Kaneshie Sports Complex.
Hammond, determined to end his opponent's dominance, overpowered Okine for a greater part of the 12-round bout that the judges had little difficulty in declaring him the new champion with a unanimous points decision.
After dropping the champion in the second and third rounds it became apparent that Okine would have to put up an extraordinary performance to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. In round three Okine was in trouble but managed to survive as Lartekwei tried to end the fight via the short route.
However, living up to his 'Ataa Gyata' accolade, the champion came fighting like a wounded lion in the latter rounds with his punches inflicting some damage on the challenger, who stood his ground to notch his biggest victory in his professional career.
Joshua Okine, alias 'Bukom Tsatsu' stung Ashiaquaye Aryee to win the national welterweight title with a third-round knockout.
Throughout the bout, Okine established his dominance and floored Aryee in the opening round and overpowered his former Black Bombers team-mate until he was left defenceless, compelling referee Godfried Cobbinah to stop the fight with seven seconds left in the third round.
Franco-Lebanese boxer Khaled Jarkot drew some applause from fans after displaying good boxing skills in his hyped international middleweight contest with James Toney.
Although a product of a caste that has little pedigree in the pugilistic sport, Jarkot made his Ghanaian opponent sweat for victory, after subjecting Toney to some agonising moments.
However Jarkot could not travel beyond the third round when he was caught in the ribs by a sledgehammer that weakened and left him defenceless, until referee J.A. Annan stepped in to save him from further punishment, 45 seconds into the round.
The Pride of Graphic and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Raymond Narh made light work of Togoleses super featherweight Olympio Naples, who could not last the opening round after kissing the canvas thrice.
Olympio's corner saved him from further punishment by throwing in the towel towards the end of the first round.
In fact, Nestor Acclomesi was an apology of a boxer in his international lightweight contest with Ben Neequaye. The Togolese came into the ring with a comedian-like pose and offered no resistance to Neequaye than repeatedly holding until the bout was stopped in the opening round.
So disgusted was Acclomesi's drab performance that the Ghana Boxing authority withheld his purse after the bout.
Camerounian fosting Rostand fared no better against Joseph Agbeko who overwhelmed him with good combination and admirable ring craft, in what was a warm-up fight for an impending world title bout.
The Camerounian also offered little opposition but managed to survive until round two when his cornermen threw in the towel to save him from further humiliation from Ghana's world title hopeful.
Crowd-favourite Ben Ankrah, alias Congo Soldier, put up a brave performance against lion-hearted Zakaria Salifu to score a unanimous points victory to win the national lightweight title.
Epiphanie Pipi drew inspiration from his idol Evander Holyfield to win his maiden professional bout against Frankline Okine in a light heavyweight clash.
