Hurricane Kid blows opponent over at Olympia by Mathew Tyrer Feb 25th 2008

John ‘The Hurricane Kid' Watson took centre stage in the Liverpool Olympia on Saturday night as he cut Alfreton's Darren Broomhall in half midway through the first round of their scheduled four rounder at lightweight. Broomhall didn't get the chance to even throw a shot as he was stalked around the ring by local stylist Watson. The powerful lightweight managed to show an excellent variety of shots before a clinical left hook to the body dropped his 6ft opponent to one knee and he failed to beat the referee's count of ten. Watson hadn't even broken sweat and his opponent was down longer than the fight actually lasted such was the force of the shot that finished him off. After the fight Watson said, “As soon as I seen him I knew he wasn't going to last, I can't wait to get back out there.” With four wins and two KOs to his name, the double ABA champion has already began to make a name for himself. Unfortunately Watson's half round was the highlight of the night for Mersey fight fans as Mike Stafford's scheduled four rounder at cruiserweight with Paul Bonson never made the ring and the remaining five bouts failed to inspire despite the best efforts of a vocal crowd. First up was Shaun Farmer who got back to winning ways after two defeats. The tough middleweight stayed in control from the opening round and kept Paul Royston of Barnsley away with a strong jab. Farmer failed to capitalise on Royston's sloppy style although there is no doubt that he will be pleased to be back with a win. Farmer's tentative opener seemed to set the pace for the rest of Liverpool stalemates bar Watson as Joe Ainscough won easily on points over Mark Nielsen who was limited at best. The super-middleweights plodded through the opening three rounds at a lethargic pace before a big finish from Ainscough saw him through the final round. Nielsen's right parry which he was swinging like a shot in itself gave Ainscough the gap to let some big left hooks go, which caught the ambling Mancunian flush every time. Watson was up next and ruthlessly disposed of his opponent in no time, which meant that Birkenhead's Steve Williams was thrust in earlier than expected against Martin Sweeney of Darwen. Sweeney started every round strongly but after each opening flurry faded and allowed Williams to take over with a much more efficient style. Williams continued in the same vein for all six rounds and although he won easily (I had him winning all six although the judges drew one round) he lacked that big punch and struggled to break his opponent down, although to give him his due it wasn't bad for a pro debut, although it wasn't that good either. Middleweight Joe McNally offered fans better value for money as wiped the floor with Colchester's Drew Campbell. This was McNally's first outing in nearly a year and he was unlucky not to finish off his opponent inside the distance as his ferocious southpaw style was too much for Campbell to deal with. McNally's left hand did considerable damage as he delivered it like a sledgehammer, straight down the middle with each attack. Topping the bill was former amateur star John Donnelly, who was back on home soil for only the second time in his unbeaten five fight career. Having watched Donnelly smash opponent David Koegan to pieces in the first round of his last fight I expected a similar performance against Romanian journeyman Gheorghe Ghiompirica. The squat Romanian was a strange shape indeed, a bit like a human sausage roll if you can imagine it, and his style was also somewhat unconventional. He dragged Donnelly into a fight and then taunted the Scouser who began looking for a big punch to send his opponent packing. Unfortunately, this seemed to be part of Ghiompirica's plan as his tight guard took the majority of Donnelly's one punch combinations and broke up his rhythm. Despite winning easily on points, one suspects that Donnelly will want to forget this fight and get back on track with the quick pressure fighting he knows he is capable of. With the next Merseyside show on the March 16th, some of the local stars will need to step up a gear and the promoters too need to have a rethink about the billing order which for the last two local shows at least has affected the atmosphere within the venues.

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