Darren Surtees is on the move. It’s official.
The Co Durham boxer took out Kane Baker with a ruthless second-round finish to stop his Birmingham opponent on the undercard of Callum Smith’s World Boxing Super Series triumph over George Groves.
Surtees has, of course, shown North East boxing observers just what he is capable of with his fists of dynamite, but last night in Saudi Arabia he was able to show the world in this eight-round domestic dust up.
The 24-year-old had the better of the first session at the King Abdullah Sports City, ending it by hurting Baker with a left.
It set the seen for a devastating assault in the second, when he put down the Brummie with another left.
Surtees went for it, forcing Baker back on to the ropes. The game 28-year-old attempted to meet fire with fire only to be whacked with a left-right head combination which sent him to the canvas, referee Alexander Plumanns stepping in at one minute, 50 seconds.
It was his sixth stoppage win out of nine and rendered judges Juergen Billhardt, Holger Wiemann and Joerg Milke redundant.
Surtees, who trains alongside Commonwealth light-welterweight king Glenn Foot at the East Durham gym in Peterlee, is hopefully moving towards English title contention.
Next month, Kay Prospere and Cassius Connor slug it out in Tottenham for the right to meet champ Sam ‘The Sensation’ O’Maison and it would be nice to see the Dave Binns fighter in contention for national honours at 10 stone.
Surtees is pictured with coach Binns and Prince Naseem Hamed.
Further up the weights in Jeddah, there was a shock on the WBSS super-middle final where
Callum Smith ended the reign of George Groves as the WBA champ with a seventh-round stoppage.
The 28-year-old Scouser hurt Groves at the end of the sixth before winning it with a left hook to the body in the seventh.
Words: Roy Kelly
