Uncle v Nephew delivers jaw-dropping King of the Rock stickfighting finish in Moruga

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

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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.

Selwyn John battles his way to victory against his nephew, Anderson Marcano, eventually emerging as the 2026 stick fighting champion and King of the Rock at the 2026 National Stickfighting Finals. [Image by KRISTIAN DE SILVA]

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

The an­cient art of kalin­da un­fold­ed me­thod­i­cal­ly as the fight­ers cir­cled each oth­er, draw­ing screams from spec­ta­tors each time Mar­cano’s stick flew from his grasp. When John fi­nal­ly land­ed his de­ci­sive blow, strik­ing Mar­cano and draw­ing blood, the crowd erupt­ed in ap­plause, seal­ing his vic­to­ry.

Hoist­ed on­to the shoul­ders of fel­low bo­is­men, in­clud­ing Glad­i­a­tors cap­tain Oneil Odle, a blood­ied but res­olute John de­scribed the win as bit­ter­sweet. A four-time cham­pi­on, he called on the State to pro­vide in­sur­ance and spon­sor­ship for stick­fight­ers, ar­gu­ing that men who risk their lives to pre­serve cul­ture de­serve greater pro­tec­tion and re­spect.

“The mon­ey too small, but every year we come and fight. Kalin­da is in our blood,” he said.

Odle, re­flect­ing on the clash, de­scribed it as “a bloody vic­to­ry.

Selwyn John celebrates his victory as the 2026 stick fighting champion and King of the Rock at the 2026 National Stickfighting Finals. [Image by KRISTIAN DE SILVA]

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

“I went there ex­pect­ing to win and end­ed up with de­feat. Tonight, we are all win­ners,” he said. How­ev­er, he crit­i­cised the com­pe­ti­tion set­up, point­ing to the slip­pery stage and say­ing it should have been con­struct­ed from ply­wood to re­duce the dan­ger to fight­ers.

Mar­cano, mean­while, spoke can­did­ly about the per­son­al cost of the sport.

“This stick­fight­ing led me to lose my eye,” he said. “But I have a fam­i­ly, and I am a con­struc­tion work­er. De­spite this, I am very well able to pro­vide.”

He added that while he was not close to his un­cle (Sel­wyn), John’s late broth­er, Ken­neth John, had been his men­tor in the art of stick­fight­ing.

King of the Rock champion Selwyn John receives his trophy as the 2026 stick fighting champion from Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs Michelle Benjamin. [Image by KRISTIAN DE SILVA]

KRISTIAN DE SILVA

When the re­sults were an­nounced around 1.30 am, John’s Rio Claro Gayelle claimed first place, along­side Ter­rance Mar­cano and Jaevon Primus.

Sec­ond place and $30,000 went to Glad­i­a­tors, cap­tained by Odle, with An­der­son Mar­cano and Sean Lange.

Third place was se­cured by Spar­tans – No Sur­ren­der No Re­treat, led by Den­zil Har­richa­ran, Ains­ley Al­cia and Kesto McIn­tosh. Cou­va Gayelle, cap­tained by Daniel Bar­clay, with Ken­son Woods and Lebbeaus DeLeon, al­so fea­tured in the fi­nals.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia af­ter the fight, Min­is­ter of Cul­ture, Sports and Youth Af­fairs Michelle Ben­jamin said the Gov­ern­ment in­tend­ed to take stick­fight­ing to a glob­al stage through stronger mar­ket­ing and in­creased recog­ni­tion.

She added that the State would work to­ward pro­vid­ing bet­ter in­cen­tives for bo­is­men, ac­knowl­edg­ing their role in safe­guard­ing a pow­er­ful cul­tur­al lega­cy.