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In a jaw-drop­ping fin­ish that kept Moru­ga on edge un­til the fi­nal strike, King of the Rock cham­pi­on Sel­wyn John emerged vic­to­ri­ous af­ter fac­ing off against his nephew, An­der­son Mar­cano, in a bru­tal, blood-soaked cham­pi­onship bout at the Na­tion­al Stick­fight­ing Fi­nals.

To the steady, hyp­not­ic rhythm of bon­go drums echo­ing through the Moru­ga Mul­ti­pur­pose Youth and Sport Fa­cil­i­ty in St Mary’s, the two men stepped in­to the gayelle in the wee hours of the morn­ing—blend­ing fierce tra­di­tion with deeply per­son­al fam­i­ly ties.

“Hit him, Un­cle! Don’t feel sor­ry!” one rel­a­tive shout­ed from the crowd as John and Mar­cano squared off. The pair had not been on speak­ing terms for years, and de­spite blood pour­ing from wounds on John’s head, Mar­cano—who lost an eye in a stick­fight­ing ac­ci­dent in 2007—showed no hes­i­ta­tion, press­ing the at­tack re­lent­less­ly.