The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

DEVANTE McPhee had his winning streak snapped on Saturday night, but he still managed to walk away with the Ray Minus Sr. Boxer of the Year honors.

In the Champion Amateur Boxing Club’s grand finale for 2012, McPhee lost a close main event bout to Don Rolle, the 14-year-old 142 pounder, whom he beat on the first night of the show on Wednesday.

Despite the loss, 16-year-old 135 pound McPhee was still impressive enough to collect the top honor from the show.

The award was presented to him by Minus Sr, who was once again honored by the club, headed by Ray Minus Jr. for the 17th consecutive year.

“It was a good feeling since this was just my first loss for the year,” said McPhee, who is now in Exuma completing his final year of high school. “I was hoping to end the year with all victories, but that didn’t work out. I just have to regroup and get ready for next year and try to do it all over again.”

As for Saturday’s final three round bout, McPhee admitted that it was a close fight that could have gone either way. Those in the stands at the Wulff Road Boxing Square felt that McPhee should have won it after he initiated the pace throughout the three rounds and his aggression forced Rolle to receive a standing eight count in the third round.

“It was a close fight. I got a loss, but I was still glad for the experience,” he said. “I’m really looking forward to a rematch. I wasn’t proud of my performance. I know I could do better. I just have to come with the rematch and bring it on home like I did in the other matches that we had.”

Out of his 11 victories this year, McPhee pulled off three against Rolle. With his victory, Rolle was named the most improved boxer of the tournament. He also earned that award for the year.

“I felt good about my performance because at the beginning of the tournament, I lost to him (McPhee) and I knew tonight I had to come back bigger and better in the rematch,” said the eighth grader at Bahamas Academy. “I saw the improvement in myself, so I felt I got what I deserved.”

There was another fight that the spectators felt should have gone the other way after Donovan Taylor won over Miguel Burrows. In making his debut, the taller 16-year-old 135 pound Burrows took each round to the 15-year-old 128 pound Taylor. In fact, Burrows was so impressive that he forced Taylor to get a standing eight count at the end of the first and another at the beginning of the second rounds.

Taylor, however, picked up some steam after that and he took control of the third as the fatigue started to wear down on Burrows.

Also Saturday, Prince Simeon was just too much for Jarvis Burrows to handle, The ten-year-old Simeon had the nine-year-old Burrows on the defensive for the majority of their three round bout that began the competition. Simeon, at the end of the night, was named the most improved junior boxer.

Champion Amateur Boxing Club founder and coach Ray Minus said despite the fact that they didn’t have all of the boxers in attendance, the show was still a good one to close out the year.

“When you have some much expectations with so many guys training and all of a sudden it’s like only a few show, you have to be a bit discouraged,” he said. “I was also looking at having some of the other clubs coming in and participating, but they didn’t show up either. So the show must go on.

“It turned out to be a good show for some of the boxers who took part in the program so the benefit was something that they all enjoyed.”

Minus Jr said he intend to continue with his monthly boxing shows in 2013, but they will step it up by putting on tournaments on Friday and Saturday nights back-to-back to ensure that they get the best results from all of the boxers. This year, he said they went to a four day tournament and some of the boxers who competed on ay one, was not able to last through to the end.

“We have some more work to do and we will correct those mistakes for next year because if these boxers want to compete on the international scene, they will have to learn to box more than once in the same tournament,” said the former Bahamian bantamweight and lightweight champion.

The first show for 2013 is expected to be staged at the end of January.