Tom Hill may have lost his hair, but he has not lost his way.
The Redcar welterweight led a 1-2-3 for the Peterlee team of Dave Binns with a six-round points victory over Serge Ambomo, with Adam Gair and Alex Farrell also winning on Saturday’s MTK event at Newcastle.
Hill, minus his big blond ‘Barnet’, was back in the ring following his first career defeat at the sledgehammer hands of Ellis Corrie in a challenge for the vacant Northern Area welterweight belt at Houghton in December.
A six-rounder with Ambomo was no easy return for the 24-year-old – and that’s just how ‘One Bomb’ wanted it.
Anyone who saw the excellent interview with Hill on British Boxing Blog will know his confidence had not been dented by the fourth-round defeat to Corrie, who Tom called out quite loudly.
Hill’s boxing did the talking at the Newcastle Eagles Community Arena with six very assured rounds.
There were a few pretty big swings to negotiate from the 2012 Olympian, but the Phil Jeffries-managed prospect coped well.
Hill’s right was accurate throughout, doing the bulk of the scoring, and his composure was emphasised in the fifth when he let a few rights go off the back foot just as Ambomo was attempting to exert some pressure.
While the Sheffield boxer was competitive, referee Kevin McIntyre was correct in awarding all six rounds to Hill.
Mr McIntyre was also the third man for Tom’s team-mate Farrell, who proved one of the stars of the undercard.
This Greek Geordie was a 40-35 winner against a decent Manchester southpaw in Jan Ardon.
It would probably be too early to apply any hype where the 22-year-old is concerned but he looks a cut above his fellow North-East boxers at a similar stage of their careers.
Farrell started briskly while the Czech visitor landed a couple of shots of his own, but the former Greece junior champ stepped up a gear in the second, putting Ardon down with a right.
Jan got up but then took a few left-rights for his trouble and after a quieter third session, the last saw another heavy attack.
Ardon survived but Farrell was a highly impressive 40-35 winner.
That was his fourth straight victory, one less than his stablemate Gair who had very few issues in a 39-37 win over another Czech, Jiri Svacina, Kevin Weaver refereed with Mr Kearney doing the scoring.
With no disrespect intended to the overseas visitors – several tried on the MTK bill and one actually won – Gair is gaining precious little from these bouts.
Having fought at a very good level as an amateur and looking a good athlete, the Hetton cruiser you feel would be better suited boxing against opponents with some life in them.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
