Booth A Cut Above Marsh

By Andrew Wake at ringside: Not so long ago a 32-year-old campaigning at super-bantamweight would be widely regarded as bordering on prehistoric but Nottingham’s Jason “2 Smooth” Booth continued to defy father time as he added the vacant Commonwealth strap to the Lonsdale belt he already held.

Booth, fighting at the Harvey Hadden Sports Complex in his home city for the seventh time in his 14 year pro career, defeated former domestic ruler Matthew Marsh after a cut above the challenger’s right forced referee John Keane to wave the bout off at 0.54 of the eleventh round.

But up until then it had been far from an easy night at the proverbial office for Booth as he had to fight his way back into a contest that could very well have slipped from his grasp.

West Ham’s Marsh moved well early on and made it difficult for the champion to get close. Booth desperately forayed forward but was the victim of his own enthusiasm as heads came together and opened up a nick above his left eye.

Thankfully the cut wasn’t as severe as it at first appeared and the champion came back well enough in the second round to probably bag the session.

However the third and fourth frames were a different story as once again Booth was limited to wide arching hooks that Marsh skilfully slipped and countered with solid straight lefts and clubbing rights.

And the Londoner, not normally noted as a puncher, further enhanced his lead on the scorecards in the fifth round as he detonated a chopping left hook that dropped Booth onto his backside.

The Nottingham-native was up quickly, seemingly unhurt and in the next round the fight back began.

Booth, a former title holder at flyweight, super-flyweight and bantamweight, finally got inside Marsh’s jabs and hooked well to the midsection, as well as adding further damage to a cut he’d opened above Marsh’s right peeper in that otherwise unproductive fifth stanza.

By the eighth the aimless rushing forward was gone and Booth was the smooth boxer of old, working for openings and firing in solid salvos. The action was back in close again in the ninth and tenth but, unlike before, it was now Booth that was having the final say in exchanges.

The eleventh, and ultimately final round, started well for Marsh, whose abdication of the British title last year allowed Booth to become champion, as he connected with a decent right hand but by now Booth’s digs had taken their toll and the cut above the challenger’s eye was bleeding profusely. After a quick check with Marsh’s corner, referee John Keane elected to stop the fight.

Marsh’s disappointment would have increased further when he heard after the fight that he was ahead on two of three judges’ scorecards. For it’s worth, the reporter had Booth a round up when end came.

Booth will now look to move onto European level as it is likely that his great friend and current champion Rendall Munroe will vacate the strap due to him being nominated for a WBC eliminator.

Martin Concepcion booked his place in this month’s Prizefighter competition and held onto his Midland’s Area light-middleweight championship with a very disputable 96 – 94 victory over Lincoln’s Kevin Hammond.

Both exchanged meaty hooks in the opening two rounds and it looked like unfolding into a nicely balanced contest but after that Hammond appeared to take control and hurt Concepcion several times with damaging blows to the head.

Concepcion, from Leicester, did get off some quality uppercuts at times as he attempted to fight off the ropes, and even did enough to win the eighth but in every other round it appeared that Hammond was building a commanding lead and he repeatedly got off to the head and body.

And in the ninth it seemed that Hammond was just moments away from heading back to Lincolnshire with a stoppage win on his ledger as a weighty left hand had Concepcion reeling on unsteady legs. The Leicester man did well to survive until the end of the round.

The final session was an all out war. A courageous Concepcion, his legs still a little bit like jelly, found Hammond’s chin with a solid right but Hammond came firing back with hooks of his own. Both men looked for the knockout until bell sounded.

Consensus around ringside was that Hammond had done enough to win by at least four or five rounds so it came as something as a shock when referee Shaun Messer raised Concepcion’s hand.

Concepcion himself must have known that he had been fortuitous because he immediately offered to give Hammond another shot at the area crown once his Prizefighter obligations are out of the way.

An all West Yorkshire battle between Leeds’ Carl Johanneson and Dewbury’s Gary Sykes after both super-feathers won their respective bouts.

Former British champion Johanneson, now 28 – 4 (19 KOs), returned to the ring after almost two years and faced another Dewsbury man in Youssef Al Hamidi.

Syrian-born Al Hamidi, while boasting only six wins from 32 fights, is as tricky an operator as they come and it took Carl until the second round to pin him down and get his shots off.

Occasionally Al Hamidi would venture forward and try to hit the Leeds man to the torso but Johanneson spun out of harms way and fired off looping left hooks.

Referee Terry O’Connor scored it 60 – 55.

Things were much tougher for undefeated Gary Sykes as he had to climb off the canvas before outworking a spirited Dean Mills over six-threes.

Sykes, who won a British title eliminator with a ten round win over Anthony Crolla last year, closed off the first round with a decent right but in the second Bridgewater’s Mills grazed the Yorkshire man with a straight left that sent him tumbling to the canvas. However, on second look it appeared that Sykes had tripped over his own feet as he attempted to back peddle from Mills’ advances.

Gary, nicknamed “Five Star”, got back to his boxing in the following frame and despite having to soak up a few uppercuts on the inside, earned the 58 – 55 margin given to him by Mr Messer.

With current Commonwealth belt holder Ricky Burns seemingly set for a crack at the WBO title and most recent Lonsdale belt holder Kevin Mitchell now campaigning at lightweight, the door is open for a Sykes – Johanneson clash for the vacant British title.