By Andrew Wake at ringside: Reigning British and English ABA welterweight champion Liam Cameron barely put a foot wrong as he successfully negiotiated his first outing in the paid ranks with a clear cut points win over grizzled Nottingham veteran Matt Scriven at Sheffield City Hall on Saturday night (October 24).
Cameron, 19, turned his back on trying for a place on Team GB’s squad for the London Olympics in 2012 to pursue his dream of championship glory in the professional side of the sport and his army of fans will be glad he did after this efficient performance.
The debutant stung Scriven, who came into the bout on the back of last week’s knockout win over Terry Maughan, with a short right to the body and left hand upstairs in the opener.
Scriven tried hard to unload to the torso early in the second session but Cameron quickly repelled him with a solid left followed by a right hook. But the third was the round in which Cameron really began to let fly, catching the Midlander with a meaty uppercut and roundhouse left hook.
Bleeding from above his right eye, Scriven gallantly tried to press forward in the following rounds but Cameron soaked up the blows before dancing into space and popping off jabs and right hands to the side of the head.
Referee Michael Alexander scored the contest 60 points to 54.
“It’s a lot harder to keep track of what round it is and you think you’ve done more than you’ve done,” Cameron said, comparing the pro game to the amateurs afterwards. “But you can hurt ‘em a lot more in this. I kept looking at his cut and I was concentrating on that ‘cause I wanted to open it up.
“Scriven was a good kid and people have said they take their hat off to me for boxing him in my first fight. He’s boxed some good people, he fought Craig Watson and he gave him a good fight and he boxed Ashley Theophane, who has had nearly 30 fights and beaten a former world champion, so it was good.
“I want to thank my all the fans who turned out and my sponsors Sheffield Kitchen Outlet who’ve help me out a lot.”
Next up for the young Yorkshire man is a fight in Bradford at some point in December.
Almost a year to the day since he was brutally knockout by Ryan Barrett in a defence of the English super-featherweight Bradford stylist Femi Fehintola got back to winning ways against Birmingham trial horse Sid Razak.
Fehintola, looking rejuvenated under the tutelage of new trainer Joe Gallagher, came out doubling his jab and getting off rapid fire one-twos to the ribs to take the opening two frames. Razak, who is better than his 4 – 34 (1 KO) record suggests, tried to mount a fight back close to end of each session but most of his blows landed on the Bradford man’s gloves and elbows.
Razak did have some success in the fourth but it ultimately ended up costing him. After Fehintola had landed an impressive combination to the end and body, Razak unleashed a left hook that had Femi reeling but the Birmingham native got carried away and rushed his follow up and it was him rather than Fehintola that ended up on the canvas taking a count.
In fairness it looked like Razak had lost his footing rather than suffered a legitimate knockdown (something that even Fehintola and Joe Gallagher admitted afterwards) but it was enough to swing the session back Femi’s way.
The pace dropped in the fifth but by then Fehintola had done enough to see the fight out behind his stick and was glad to have won and shook off some ring rust.
Afterwards Gallagher compared the comeback to someone regaining their confidence behind the wheel after a car crash and said that Fehintola will likely have a couple more fights before jumping back into the domestic title mix.
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Hometown light-heavyweight hope Jamie Ward opened his professional account with a six-twos Retford’s Lee Nicholson.
Nicholson made the brighter start but his aggression didn’t really see him landing much. Ward, who had the mantra “Only God Can Judge Me” tattooed across his back, upped his game in the second and his constant pressure and decent punching downstairs was enough for him to take all of the remaining rounds.
Referee Mike Alexander scored it 60 points to 55 and proved that the third man, as well as God, is capable of judging at least some of Ward’s actions.
The showing of another Steel City light-heavyweight wasn’t so joyous as Kyle Whitham had to settle for a draw with cross city rival Lee Duncan.
23-year-old Whittam pushed the Ingle-schooled Duncan back with spearing jabs and right hooks and won the first four sessions on this observer’s card but took his foot off the gas and allowed Duncan, who is yet to win in three bouts, get back into it.
Mr Alexander’s 58-58 card couldn’t be argued against despite SecondsOut scoring the fight 58 – 56 in the debutante’s favour.
6ft 8ins heavyweight Richard Towers moved to 5 – 0 (3 KOs) after Jason Callum was forced to withdraw from their six rounder at the end of the third stanza with a shoulder injury.
Towers, 30, had dominated the fight up to that point by firing out his jab and adding interest with two fisted attacks to Callum’s fleshy body.
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