Stepping up to the elite amateur duration of 3x3min. in a buzzing dinner boxing show at St Pierre Park, the Western Counties Development champion won the unanimous decision over Yuui Heya from the North of England Select and later added the honours for fight of the night.
Guernsey ultimately prevailed 5-4 with headliner Tommy Teers among the Sarnians falling short of a win but, in Amalgamated Boxing Club head coach Ben Duff’s view, they could all take positives from the night.
‘There were some really good performances all across the team,’ he said.
‘Even the ones who didn’t get the decision still boxed well.’
First up, young Daniel Jamieson fought at home for the first time and appeared to dominate, hitting more and harder, though this was a skills bout and so no decision given.
But what followed was a similarly dominant performance and unanimous decision for Frankie Veron, who started in particularly assertive fashion and dealt some good blows throughout to Mason Cartwright, contributing that first point to the red corner's scoreline.
The North of England then drew level as Tamjid Rahman lost on a unanimous to tall opponent Daniyal Khan.
One of two Guernsey amateur debutants, Jack Smith faced tough, counter-punching opponent Mike Tacu and pushed hard until the end to outpoint him and get the Sarnians back on the front foot.
Fellow debutant Charlie White fought well and hit hard against Jai Turnbull at middleweight to pick up another split-decision victory for the red corner.
‘It takes a lot of courage and bravery just to get in the ring for the first time,’ Duff said of the two first-timers.
‘Both went in there and did themselves proud.’
The first of five planned 3x3min. bouts constituting the second half of the bill, Emile Prevel’s duel against Luke Perry ended in unusual and disappointing fashion.
The contest lasted only a single round before a referee stoppage, following a clash of heads that left his opponent with a cut above one eye.
But a decision was still made and it was one that favoured the blue corner.
The comeback-seeking Niall Adams brought redemption for the red corner, though, showing no real signs of ring rust against Hakeem Niwaz after a hiatus of more than four years.
He started strongly and battled until the end to get the unanimous decision, a 4-2 lead for Guernsey, and plenty of praise from Duff.
‘Great performance from Niall coming back – he started really strongly in bout one and maintained that pressure throughout the rest of the fight.’
Finn Walsh held his own against Mohammad Kadivar, finishing round two strongly with his opponent briefly on the canvas.
But his rival bounced back to give him a standing count deep into the third and ultimately took the unanimous decision to close the gap for the northerners.
This was when Quintal came in.
What started with the Guernsey boxer getting good jabs in at range became a war from round two onwards, when his opponent switched up his tactics and began coming forward.
Duff called the resulting bout ‘fantastic’ and highlighted the versatility Quintal had shown.
‘Tyler showed that he could go to war as well as box.’
Already assured of victory at 5-3 up, Guernsey then called on star bantamweight Teers, who has already made a case to be selected for his first Commonwealth Games this year.
He opened his season against Yorkshire champion Marillious Kelly, a similarly swift opponent with a slight height advantage. In an expectedly hard-fought contest with great work rates from both boxers, Kelly nevertheless got the unanimous nod.
‘At that level, there’s no easy contest,’ Duff added.
‘Fair play to the other team. They deserved to win, but there’s plenty of positives Tommy can take away from it, stuff to work on, and come back strongly. It’s win or learn, isn’t it?’
