Nikki Bascome was left without an opponent in Saturday night’s Epic Entertainment Fight Night Champion card as American Daniel Arriaga failed to arrive in Bermuda, leaving Andre Lambe and Adrian Roach to provide the excitement for a capacity crowd inside The Shed, in Dockyard.

The pair secured victories by technical knockout over their Jamaican opponents as the Bermudians won three of their four bouts against their Caribbean counterparts.

Lambe closed out the action with a TKO decision over Dwayne Lawrence in the night’s only professional fight, with the bout stopped in the third of four rounds.

Lambe knocked Lawrence, on his pro debut, to his knees twice during the bout, in the first round and again in the third, before the referee stepped in to stop the fight.

“I felt good, my skills were good, I’ve got all knockouts,” said Lambe, who extended his flawless professional record to 5-0.

“He thought he was going to rough me up but I know how to get rough, too. He kept pushing me and every time he pushed me I made him pay.

“I’m glad I had the crowd to boost me, I was hyped up after the Bermuda wins. Me and Roach had been working together before so it was nice to see everybody who had been working together get these wins. I’m from Forty Rego’s gym but I’m here to help out al the youth and if one of the children needs help, I’m here.”

Lambe approached the event expecting to feature ahead of Bascome, but found himself in the headline fight.

“I was really looking forward to that fight, I know Nikki’s been training hard for a long time so it was unfortunate,” Lambe added.

“Hopefully we can get something else going and he can get in.”

Roach was able to silence Sanju Williams whose pre-fight taunts stirred up some tension, with the Bermudian, supported by an enthusiastic crowd, pulling off a thrilling victory 2 min 22 sec into the third round.

The best bout of the night was stopped after Roach landed some solid blows to Williams’s head as he stumbled and was assessed by the referee before the fight was stopped.

“I feel great right now, that was a way to silence him, he had so much stuff to say,” said Roach.

“He was playing games with my last name, saying he was going to bring Baygon spray, a roach spray. He had a lot to say but once he felt the power he decided to quit.

“In my opinion quitting is worst than getting knocked out. I’d rather go out on my shield, I’m a warrior.”

The 20-year-old had lots of supporters surrounding him after he left the ring with a memorable victory under his belt.

“I believe I put on a good show and I can’t be any more proud of myself,” he admitted. “My team is very proud of me, I have a lot of things to work on, staying humble and getting back to the work.

“I’ll be back in the gym on Monday, this is what I live and do. When the crowd gets behind you it’s a good feeling because there’s nothing like fighting at home, everybody’s on your side.”

Roach added: “You have some people who doubt you but that’s where this counts, when you can silence any doubter and leave no doubts.

‘He [Williams] had to quit, there wasn’t any decision where the judges could have messed up. The referee asked him if he wanted to continue and he said no.“

Roach was happy to do his part in helping to fill the void left by the cancellation of Bascome’s fight.

“I know that people are going to be upset that Nikki is not fighting, but I believe I gave them some good entertainment seeing that my ‘brother’ Nikki couldn’t compete due to unforeseen circumstances.”

Jamaica started their bouts against Bermudian opponents with Omar Campbell winning a points decision against Dejon Benjamin. The youth fights involving Josef Ferreira and Otero Smith also did not go ahead after their opponents from the United States, Leonard Ross and Curvon Woodson, did not arrive in Bermuda.

Bermuda’s Jaylon Roberts won a unanimous decision against Tevoy Barritt, of Jamaica, in a fight that Carl Grant, the Jamaica coach, felt was closer than the overall result.

“We won the first fight, the second fight was a poor decision because they gave the guy a unanimous decision when my kid won the first round and he [Roberts] won the second round,” Grant said.

“It was who won the most in the third round. It’s a competitive sport and the referee was being bias in not penalising the children from here for holding.

“Our kid, Sanju Williams, in the third fight, is a lightweight boxer but to make the trip to come here he put on some weight and it showed in the ring. That was the fight of the night but our kid is not a welterweight. He got exhausted and stopped.”

Grant added: “In the last fight, Dwayne was making his professional debut and when you go out in deep waters you are going to drown and that’s what happened to him tonight.

“Overall it was good and the crowd was excellent.”