Kirt Sinnette has never looked so angered.

He had just been knocked out— two minutes, 30 seconds into the fourth round of his fight for the World Boxing Council (WBC) International light-heavyweight belt against Ugandan Joey Vegas to be exact.

The Woodbrook Youth Facility went silent as the stockily built African landed a solid punch which put Sinnette, first into the ropes, and then hard to the canvas.

Sinnette fought a rather queer fight on Sunday night. He appeared well in control for the first two rounds, controlling range and the opponent with a long jab. Then in the third round, Sinnette stopped doing what was working, and all his early work was negated by being knocked down in the third and fourth rounds, before the fight was stopped.

By the third round, Sinnette's jab had become lazy and sometimes disappeared altogether. Then, bang! Vegas was allowed to get closer, the only position from which he could hurt the Trinidadian, and landed a flush punch to the head that sent Sinnette to the canvas.

It was Vegas' first major punch landed. Sinnette (22-2) recovered and resumed working as he had done in the two earlier rounds. But by the fourth, the African had become emboldened and Sinnette gun shy and hesitant to throw the jab. His confidence up, Vegas (14-6) threw a flurry of punches, putting Sinnette on wobbly legs and sent him to the canvas again. Seeing enough, Guyanese referee Eion Jardine ended the fight. But the usually gentle giant Sinnette was not pleased.

"I disagreed with Jardine's decision to stop that fight. I was never given a standing eight count," Sinnette declared angrily afterwards. "I don't know if I will ever get a rematch....I fed up...."

Sensing the local man's anguish, members of his entourage asked the media to be kind to Sinnette, a fighter who has always been kind to the media. And everyone obliged.

"He hot right now. Ease him up nah. He cah talk right now," they said.

Meanwhile, after saying a few hours earlier that it was almost a done deal, and that Sinnette would be challenging for Chad Dawson's world title on the condition that he won (over Vegas) and a $3 million purse could be raised, sometimes promoter, sometimes boxing special adviser Boxu Potts was already looking past the local fighter, and angling for a title defence between Vegas and locally-based Guyanese Shawn Corbin.

Earlier on the night, former mini-flyweight world champion Ria Ramnarine (14-6) returned to the ring after a year's absence with a businesslike unanimous decision over Guyanese Stephanie George (5-9), although it could be disputed that Ramnarine did not win all six rounds as one judge suggested.

Also on the card, Trinidad and Tobago lightweight Prince Lee Isadore won a first round knockout over a very poor Cassius Mathews. Fleeing from "licks", the Guyanese appeared to fall heavily to the canvas from a slip rather that a punch, but was in no mood to take any more punches on the night. Jamila Jones also won a six-round unanimous decision over Tiana Soca Saney.

Earlier, a four-fight amateur card between from Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana ended 2-2.

Guyanese Joel Williamson won on points over T&T's Joey Ramoutar; while Travis Hubbard gave Guyana another win when he beat Akmal Stroude.

Shaquille Gabriel won the title of best amateur fighter of the night when he beat Jamal Thomas to give T&T a first win on the night, and 2012 Olympic hopeful Michael Alexander outclassed highly-rated Guyanese Imran Khan to knot up the tie. And probably the most exciting fight on the night lasted just a round when T&T mixed martial arts fighter Dwayne Hinds scored an impressive knockout over Canadian Scott Hutchinson. Hinds rushed the visitor early in the round and so pummeled his opponent that the Canadian had no control of his body and was wobbling all over the ring at the end.

By Ian Prescott

Source: www.trinidadexpress.com