EBU European champion belt generic
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By Andrew Wake at ringside: Scott Lawton’s dream of winning the vacant super-featherweight crown was quickly dashed by a rampant Leva Kirakosyan at the Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke on Friday night (February 19).
33-year-old Lawton made the move down to 9st 4Ibs late last year after narrowly missing out on titles at lightweight and was relishing the opportunity to fight for the EBU strap, but it proved to be a step too far as he was brutally blown out in three rounds.
Sadly the writing was on the wall for the Englishman early in the opening round as Kirakosyan swerved one of Lawton’s jabs and detonated a hurtful right hook on his exposed chin.
Lawton has always been known for his bravery and was quickly back on his feet but it was clear from ringside that he’d been severely buzzed. He spent the remainder of the round on the backfoot, soaking up more spiteful blows but was again shaken just before the bell sounded by a weight left.
Things went from bad to worse for Lawton in the second as the short and stocky Kirakosyan, a former holder of this title, lashed in another right hand and if it hadn’t have been for the ring strands keeping him vertical, Lawton would certainly have tasted the canvas once more.
Oddly, referee Soren Saugmann of Denmark issued the Stoke fighter a standing eight count when many referees would have shown mercy and waved it off there and then.
The end came at 0.21 of the third as yet again the France-based Armenian had Lawton flailing on the ropes and, after another massive right made his the Stoke native’s head swim, the referee decided enough was enough.
Prior to the fight Lawton, who has now failed in attempts to annex the British, Commonwealth and European title, said that if he lost he would consider his future in the sport so it will be interesting to see if he goes against what he said and fights on like many fighters do or instead turns his attention to making himself a name as a trainer.
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For Kirakosyan, now 32 – 5 (22 KOs), time is over the essence. The Armenian, who twice previously knocked out another Brit in Leeds’ Carl Johanneson, is 36 years of age now and needs to move quickly if he is to progress his career further.
While it was heartbreak for Lawton, his Impact Boxing stablemate Chris Edwards did manage to bring some joy to the Potteries fans as he regained the Commonwealth flyweight title with a hard fought unanimous decision over Namibia’s Abmerk Shindjuu.
In typical fashion Edwards pressed forward from the off and swept the first three rounds with little trouble but in the fourth the Africa proved he wasn’t in the ring to make up the numbers and bloodied Edwards’ nose with a superb counter punch.
And in the fifth the tide began to turn as Shindjuu upped his work rate and began to back the former champion up.
However Edwards, who was once pegged as little more than a journeyman after losing six of his first seven pro bouts, turned the screw once more in rounds six through to nine.
The fight hung in the balance during the championship rounds as Edwards, now also bleeding from a nick above his left eye, continued to force the fight but often found himself walking onto Shindjuu’s crafty left hooks and uppercuts to both the head and body.
It was always going to be a case of what the judges liked best; Edwards constant pressuring or Shindjuu’s clearner punching. In the end they each elected for the former rather than the latter by 115 points to 114.
After being floored four times and losing his unbeaten record to Nathan Cleverly last summer, Norwich’s Danny McIntosh proved that still has a place in the domestic title mix with an impressive second round stoppage of Portsmouth veteran Tony Oakey.
McIntosh, defending the English light-heavyweight title he has held since beating Steve Spartacus in October 2008, started slowly by electing to use his jab whilst moving around the ring.
But the second round saw him burst into life and a chopping right hand had Oakey tasting the canvas.
The Portsmouth man, himself a former British and WBU 12st 7lbs champion, got back to his feet quickly and tried to fight his way back into things but was caught by another right hand and fell into the ropes before taking a knee.
It seemed that he was just regaining his composure before springing back up but he mis-timed getting to his feet and referee Victor Loughlin counted him out.
Oakey was set to take on South African Isaac Chilemba for the WBC International title next month but this result could have put that fight in jeopardy. For McIntosh, the win could lead to him getting another crack at the Lonsdale belt should current champ Cleverly vacate in order to pursue his ambitions at world level.
Cardiff’s lightweight dynamo Gary Buckland is another main set for big things in championship fights as he put himself in line for a mandatory tilt at Commonwealth lightweight champion Lee McAllister with clear cut unanimous points win over the previously unbeaten Sam Rukundo after 12 highly entertaining sessions.
In the first round it didn’t even seem like the fight would go the distance. Rukundo, a Swedish-based Ugandan who boxed at the 2004 Olympic Games, flicked a right hand out which the Welshman skilfully avoided before sending the African to the mat with a booming right of his own.
Southpaw Rukundo was up and ready to fight on after the mandatory eight count but spent the following few rounds trying to break through Buckland’s almost impenetrable guard with single jabs.
In fact until the sixth round – which Rukundo won with his stick – the most trouble Buckland had came from his gumshield, which seemed to have a mind of its own and was intent on escaping from his mouth in every stanza.
Buckland’s fast paced attacks looked to have drained him a little in the late rounds and the Ugandan was able to make the fight closer on the cards with more economic work behind the southpaw jab but just when it appeared the African was growing on confidence, Buckland would draw further energy from the well of resolve and fire in heavy artillery to the torso.
Judges Mark Green and Terry O’Connor had it 117 – 111, while Victor Laughlin put in a score of 116 – 112.
Buckland improves to 18 – 1 (6 KOs), while Rukundo drops to 15 – 1 – 1 (6 KOs).
Prizefighter middleweight winner Martin Murray must be getting sick of fighting little known eastern Europeans having faced them now in four of his last six outings.
Tonight the 27-year-old from St Helens took on Georgian Shalva Jomardashvilli and was made to work harder than expected but used his craft to carve out a 58 – 56 margin over six rounds on the card of Mr O’Connor and take his slate to 18 wins without defeat.
Surely if he is to keep his head up and not become complacent against fighters that may as well be named whatdoyoucallhimvilli then he needs to be matched with a domestic level fighter that will put him a step closer to a British title clash with Darren Barker. A veteran fighter like a Steve Bendall or even Howard Eastman would fit the bill.
Manchester’s “Magic” Matthew Hatton marked time before pursuing some kind of title shot with a stoppage of Mikheil Khutsishvili.
The younger Hatton, in his first fight with new trainer Bob Shannon after Lee Beard left to take charge of Joan Guzman in America, rammed in the combinations in each round before referee Shaun Messer stopped it at 2.35 of the fifth.
Referring his change of taskmaster Hatton said: “We’ve only had a couple of weeks to prepare for this one but it’s gone really well. Bob didn’t tinker with my style too much but we worked on some new things and I look forward to a good long training camp with Bob.”
Another fighter keeping himself busy before plotting big things for this year was Anthony “Million Dollar” Crolla.
Crolla, who lost to Gary Sykes in British super-featherweight eliminator last year, took his record 16 – 2 (6 KOs) with a routine 40 – 36 win over Birmingham trial horse Jason Nesbitt.
Salford’s former WBU featherweight champion Steve Foster Jnr defeated tricky Dewsbury-based Syrian Youssef Al Hamidi by a 59 points to 56.
Bury’s hard punching super-bantamweight prospect Scott Quigg made short work of Ukraine’s Nikita Lukin by stopping him with a solid left hook to the body at 1.57 of the first round.
Former Commonwealth welterweight champion Craig Watson continued his reinvention at 10st with an impressive fourth round stoppage Ferndale, Wales’ one time British title challenger Barrie Jones.
On the graveyard shift after most of the venue had emptied out ex European super-featherweight champion Sergey Gulyakevich forced Georgian Nikoloz Berkatashvili to retire after two completed sessions.
Gulyakevich, now 28 – 2 (13 KOs), should now look to challenge Kirakosyan , who he defeated by unanimous 12 round decision in December 2007.
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