Isaac Macleod experienced his maiden professional defeat as his dreams of Ultimate Boxxer competition, but enhanced his reputation along the way.
The Sunderland boxer reached the semi-final at the Manchester Arena, only to suffer a first-round KO at the hands of Tom Young.
It was a bitter blow to the 23-year-old, who had his heart set on victory, a bumper first prize and a major breakthrough in the welterweight division.
The evening started well enough when he upset the Manchester fans with a win in his quarter-final against home favourite, Andy Kremner.
It was one of the fights of the night as both fighters stood and traded relentlessly for three rounds.
Macleod shaded it, just, but it was some contest and there was a nervous wait before the MC announced Isaac as a split decision winner.
The former European Junior gold medalist suffered a cut above his right eye which created a worry or two ahead of his semi-final with Young.
But there was more to worry about as he was to find out.
Early on, the Leeds heavy-hitter downed Macleod with a right which caught him on the temple.
The Wearsider went down quite heavily though, to his credit was up sharply as he took a standing eight count.
Macleod’s response was good, getting stuck straight back into Young.
But the all-out attack policy came unstuck when his head was left exposed to a spectacular left hook which floored him a second time.
Again, ‘Can Bang’ got to his feet but Mark Lyson correctly called it off.
It was a brutal and heartbreaking end for Isaac but his performance against Kremner will have boosted his reputation as an exciting fighter.
Young went on to lose an exciting final with Drew Brown on a unanimous decision.
The Northampton man showed good skills and deserved his 29-28 (twice) and 30-27 verdict.
And the verdict for Ultimate Boxxer?
Not bad at all. There was no shortage of entertainment with thrilling three-rounders and a stoppage or two.
The quarter-finals were screened on Facebook page, UNILAD, with 5Spike taking up the climax of the Prizefighter-style tournament.
Andy Shepherd held the 5Spike coverage together nicely, assisted, enthusiastically, by Paulie Malignaggi and his 1,000 miles per hour chat, the ex-world champ joining the excellent Dave Farrar as co-commentator.
There were mistakes, a caption listing Tom Young’s corner as ‘Mark Marsden’ rather than Michael Marsden.
And 5Spike were slow dealing with Big Narstie, the rapper letting loose with a stream of bad language during his ‘set’ ahead of the final. Granted it was after the watershed but his repeated use of the ‘worst’ word possible should have been cut short.
Eventually, they switched backstage for an interview with Brown with Shepherd saying “we’ve got to apologise for some bad language Big Narstie used”. Bad language? Even Chubby Brown had pressed the mute button!
That aside, it was a good debut for Ultimate Boxxer and it will be good to see it go again.
Words: Roy Kelly
