A fight night to remember.
That was Saturday evening inside the Newcastle Eagles Community Arena where Tommy Ward oozed class, Joe Laws showed his finishing power, Simon Vallily cut a bemused figure and Andrew Selby gained a somewhat fortunate points win.
All of that to come but punch-lines will start at the beginning of the MTK event where Alex Farrell made it two wins from two against Bradford’s Saif Zahoor.
Referee Ron Kearney looked the biggest danger to Farrell, rebuking ta low shot or two from the Greek/ Geordie/ Peterlee boxer, but his second ticking off proved the focus for the Dave Binns welterweight to put together some strong work upstairs and gain a 40-36 win.
It was the same scoreline in bout two where referee Darren Maxwell lifted the arm of Newcastle’s Basi Razaq against Blackburn’s Naheem Chaudhry.
Almost exactly two years after his last appearance, it was nice to see Basi back inside the ropes and he performed well, his solid jab taking him to a clear victory.
Bedlington’s Darren Reay clinched the best result of his career when he too won 40-36 against former Lewis Ritson and Darren Surtees opponent, Oscar Amador.
The Gary Barr-trained MTK boxer and moved beautifully and while the Nicaraguan unleashed some wild swings late on there was no denying Darren. Reay had been lined up to fight John Green for a Northern Area title and, hopefully, there will be a bout for him at that level.
The pick of the four rounders saw Terence Wilkinson extend his winning run to seven against a more-than-useful Nicaraguan visitor, Danny Mendoza.
It all began brightly for the Walker light-welter, but as the bout wore on, it turned into some scrap as Mendoza gave as good as he got, Mr Maxwell marking this one 39-37. It’s on to the Utilita Arena next for the Davy Ritson/ Phil Jeffries boxer.
There were no such problems for Tom Hill as he got the better of Jordan Grannum in the first six-rounder, winning 60-55 from Mr Kearney.
The Londoner got through with some left hands in the last, but there was some top-notch stuff from Redcar’s ‘One Bomb’.
He looks more than ready for a Northern Area title shot and hopefully he’ll get that next.
His East Durham gym team-mate Adam Gair completed a hat-trick of pro wins with a 40-36 romp against Elvis Dube. Wearing what appeared to be the flag of Europe on his shorts, the Hetton cruiser dominated from start to finish.
Steve Robinson made very short work of his professional debut.
A first appearance against a fighter who knocked out a debutant last time out looked tricky, but ‘Hightower’ put Shaun Duffy down early and when a right-left-right hurt the Brummie, Mr Maxwell, correctly, stepped in at two minutes, two seconds.
Like Hill, it would be nice to see Chad Ellis let off the leash after his eighth consecutive win.
The 25-year-old, from Spennymoor, controlled his six-rounder with Dale Arrowsmith, landing a heavy volume of shots with referee Kevin McIntyre scoring it 60-54.
Now, those of you who have the misfortune to know this writer will be aware I am unlikely to ever make the super-bantamweight limit, even if I was brave enough to get through the ropes.
But Erik Nazaryan did not cut the most athletic of figures to be the opposition for Simon Vallily as the Middlesbrough boxer continued his heavyweight journey.
Nazaryan arrived with a fair record for this 10-rounder but that flattered the diminutive Belgian, who complained about being hit on the back of the head and then complained that his left hand was injured after round four, though punch-lines is not sure how.
After much talking in the corner, Mr Kearney accepted the retirement, leading to Vallily’s bemused look, but that’s now three stoppage wins in a row for the former Commonwealth Games gold medalist.
It went from the big boys to the skinny boys for what always seemed to be an intriguing flyweight eight-rounder between Andrew Selby and Fadhili Majiha.
And so it proved as the Tanzanian put the gifted Selby on his pants twice yet was still denied a notable victory with Mr Maxwell scoring it 76-74 to the Welshman.
In mitigation to the Scottish official, a couple of the rounds were difficult to judge, but punch-lines saw it 76-74 to the ‘Lion man’ who was unlucky to be on the wrong end of the decision.
There were no such judging issues for Mr Kearney in the headline contest as Tommy Ward outclassed Yesner Talavera 100-90.
If anyone reading this has not watched the WBO world number four in the flesh, then punch-lines urges you not to delay that any further.
The Neil Fannan and Dave Garside super-bantamweight really is a class apart and he displayed that in 10 quality-laden rounds.
Top marks to Talavera who never stopped trying but he was given a lesson from the unbeaten Co Durham talent.
And what an end to the night Joe Laws provided.
Boxing his first six-rounder, the Phil Jeffries-managed phenomenon, coached by Nik Gittus at Wallsend Boxing Academy, was paired with Danny Little.
While the 34-year-old is known as ‘Lethal’ , he is anything but, yet he is a tough, tough man to shift.
Indeed, he covered up very well, forcing the ’Benwell Bomber’ to exercise patience and he did just that and worked to gain an opening.
That came at the end of the fourth as Laws felled Little with a wicked left hook to the body and after making it up at eight , he was relieved to hear the sound of Jim Holborn’s bell.
But it only staved off defeat rather than saved him from it, with Joe’s left glove again doing the damage. This time the punch was to the head and while Danny rose at nine, Mr McIntyre judged he was not ready to box and wisely waved it off at one minute, 11 seconds of the fifth.
What a finish and what a way to sign off the show.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Jennifer Charlton/ MTK
