Terence Wilkinson produced one of the performances of the night as he doubled his win tally on the IBF title bill at Houghton.
The Newcastle boxer outpointed Mohamed Mahmoud over four exciting rounds in the best fight on the undercard to Tommy Ward’s points triumph over Alavaro Rodriguez for the International Boxing Federation’s European super-bantamweight title.
Wilkinson had won at the start of the month at the Stadium of Light on the bill of his manager Phil Jeffries and four weekends on, he starred at the RAinton Meadows Arena.
Terence was impressive on his debut against Naeem Chaudry, but his Forest Hall stablemate, Lewis Ritson, told punch-lines last week that we would get to see a better Wilkinson when he came up against an opponent who would fight and not run.
That was the case in Houghton, where Mahmoud came to have a go and the Sudan-born boxer showed his intent by landing a left hook on the Walker man’s jaw early on.
It set the scene for a competitive opener in which both men scored and that carried into round two when a cut left eye threatened to curtail Mohamed’s evening but ringside doctor, Michael Kipling, allowed the bout to continue.
And what a good decision.
Wilkinson took an occasion left in the third but he used his jab superbly to assume full control and a barrage of shots at the end of the session forced Mahmoud to hold on.
The Dave Ritson-trained fighter (pictured above) set a very warm pace in the last and little was seen of the Plymouth fighter in the last but he earned a round of applause at the end but Terence had earned the 40-37 verdict from referee Ron Kearney.
That made it two wins for Wilkinson while Chad Ellis registered his third victory with a 40-36 success against seasoned Northern Ireland middleweight Casey Blair.
Blair, from Bangor, is a regular visitor to the North-East and not a man to take liberties with and Ellis boxed cleverly in a brisk opener.
The Spennymoor boxer (pictured) used his jab nicely in the second and when in the third Blair got a couple of shots in, Chad replied with some lovely combination work.
Round three was the pick of the sessions and Ellis then kept things together nicely in the last to ensure a shut-out.
Words: Roy Kelly
