Appleby and Simpson live up to the hype by Tom Walker Jun 8th 2008

Paul Appleby will be a happy young man today, at his tender years he sits on top of the British featherweight pile with the Lonsdale belt after only 12 fights and is undefeated. In doing so he dethroned a quality boxer in John Simpson from Greenock who was looking to make the belt his outright possession. This contest was eagerly anticipated in Scotland and had the added spice of an East/West confrontation reminiscent of Buchanan and Watt over 30 years ago. The atmosphere in the venerable Kelvin Hall was charged with static to the extent that “Old Sparky” the electric chair used in American justice would have been hard pushed to generate a similar voltage. Simpson's fans outnumbered the aficionados of the noble art from Edinburgh but both sets were equally vocal in support of their man/boy. After the usual preliminaries they both set to work from the bell with intense concentration etched on their faces in the knowledge that this was going to be a hard night's work and neither relished anything other than victory. The pace was intense and Appleby's right hook had more than a hint of venom on the couple of occasions that he got the chance to unleash it, but Simpson was using his jab more effectively in the opener. Simpson himself let fly with his own right hook early in the second in what had developed into an absorbing bout between two exponents of boxing who could both walk the walk as well as talk the talk. Appleby opened the third round with malice in mind and at some pace; Simpson though wasn't unduly fazed, though perhaps he should be, as the “Gallus” kid from Edinburgh is a definite threat. In the fourth round Appleby has a double jab and right hook combination which shaves Simpson's stubble closer than a Gillette GII, fortunately for “Simmo” it only shaves his chin as it was hard, fast and the hook definitely meaty. In the end it might be that the next round determined the end result as Simpson had to take a standing count from Appleby to make that salvo a 10 – 8. Simpson wasn't happy with the count, and with a modicum of justification as there were shots prior to his going down but it is hard to say whether it was clumsiness rather than the shots themselves. Nonetheless it was given by referee Victor Loughlin and nothing Simpson could do would change that other than to reverse the roles and put Appleby down. The heat of the battle did have the Greenock man deliver a shot “south of the border” to contort the youngster's face in this round, but it had definitely gone to Appleby and by two points. By round seven, Simpson was looking fairly sanguine about the proceedings, having been there before and another week shot on the border towards the end took something out of the youngster's sails. In the latter stages of the bout Appleby has shown not only swaggering skill but a heart and stamina way beyond his relatively tender years and is subduing the legions of Greenock fans with these attributes. His (Appleby's) gumshield is sent flying from a right hook/cross from Simpson and his fans are in full voice with their encouragement to the Greenock boxer. However, by the eleventh Simpson is having to let fly with fairly wild hooks in an attempt to settle the matter before the judges score cards are tallied, all to no avail as Appleby is still moving with speed in and out of range, putting paid to the idea that he'd never been twice rounds before and wouldn't be able to handle it. The final bell sounded and both boxers wanted to show their fans that they'd prevailed, and Stevie McGuire snr; lifted his protégé confidently in acknowledgement of his sterling efforts. The judges were unanimous with scores of 114-115 (twice) and 113-115. Hence the earlier assertion of the standing count, meaning so much in the 5th round, with the two points gap going the way of the Edinburgh boxer. When all is said and done, the bout was so very, very close and no-one could have been either surprised or disappointed had it gone either way. Opinions in the “hack camp” ringside were divided, but only by the narrowest of margins! The bout had lived up to expectations and as always in boxing there are disappointments mixed up with euphoria when a meaningful title is at stake.

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young featherweight fighters! Jun 11th 2008, 11:21:51 by tommy gunn congratulations paul appleby a hell of a win especially considering his inexperience in the ring so far. I had the pleasure of watching john simpson fight derry matthews for the WBU title in liverpool and he was one hell of a fighter. the fight with derry as an example was a blood bath and he did well with derry who i feel, as a scouser i am biased, one great young fighter himself! but now the featherweight division appears to be one of young up and coming fighters which makes it very interesting for the public. however with derry looking to really prove himself and get himself back to the top of the pile in a fast and affective way then a young british and commonwealth champion must be careful. now derry doesnt have to have a rematch with simpson an effort on his part to take both those titles would see a huge force thrown in with two inexperienced young champions. prepare for one interesting set of months as the featherweight division gets a lot more exciting for everyone involved!