Jon Thaxton returned to the ring in front of his own adoring fans in Norwich on Saturday night and gave them what they wanted - a home win.
Thaxton, who had announced his retirement earlier in the year following a car crash, was a points win over the Peacock gym's Silence Saheed.
Thaxton's arrival was heralded by fireworks and with his first punch of the night a cracking left hander, he had the knees of the durable Nigerian buckling, but somehow Saheed managed to stay upright and ride the storm.
The Sports Village looked close to capacity, some sources say around 1300 were in attendance, and they were treated to a gutsy display by both of the main-eventers. Thaxton looked over eager to finish the job early and John Ingle was shouting for him to calm down, jab and move away, he received a rebuke from Davies during the second round for his constant chatter.
Saheed is no mug and this was a difficult comeback fight for Thaxton, who saw contests with Percy Commey and Keith Jones fall through in the week leading up to the fight, and Silence definitely came to fight, Thaxton looked good when he was jabbing and moving, but too many times seemed to want to go toe to toe and if Saheed had a bigger punch could have found himself in trouble a couple of times when caught on the ropes.
Saheed definitely was on top during the middle rounds, and Thaxton seemed to know this and got on his bike in the last, jabbing and moving to stay out of trouble. I had Thaxton by a round at the end, while referee Richie Davies had Thaxton winning by two. Saheed's corner looked disappointed, and as Roy Hilder correctly pointed out, if it had been an eight-rounder the referee would have been lifting Saheed's hand at the end, if the fight had continued in the same manner.
After the fight Thaxton said he was willing to fight anyone of the top lightweights in the country, but on this performance, if I was his manager I would tell him to have a couple more fights first, a couple more stiff tests like Saheed should be able to tell us if Norwich's favourite son is ready for the big time once again.
On the undercard, Earl Ling, who looked like something out of a Guy Ritchie movie, with his snarling all action style, took a points decision from Nate Joseph of Bradford. The two had met ten months earlier in Joseph's hometown and boxed a draw, but this time referee Williams held aloft the hand of Ling at the end of the contest.
Ling started like a train and two massive right hands put Joseph down twice in the opening stanza and it was with a lot of bravery that he managed to hang on and hear the bell. Joseph was caught with one too many during the fight as he dropped his guard constantly, Ling is crude but is a firm favourite in this neck of the woods and you can see why as his all action style certainly gets the crowd going.
Joseph got back into the fight when he started to jab and move in the later rounds and an ugly cut over Ling's left eye caused a bit of concern, but Joseph didn't have the power to stop Ling and he ran out a comfortable 59-54 winner on the referee's card.
Danny Smith, of Lowestoft, easily outpointed centurian Brian Coleman, who in his 167th fight never looked like repeating his shock win in July over Richard Swallow, Coleman taunted Smith throughout the fight, but seemed content to survive and the referee's card of 60-54 was spot on.
Another Norwich favourite 'Action' Jackson Williams also had an easy night of it against another Nobbs' fighter Dave Hinds, Hinds' did little in the way of attacking and again seemed content on surviving against the fast hands of Williams, who was coming back after a loss to Haroon Din in May. Williams also has a loss on his record against Hinds' stablemate Anthony Hanna, but there was never any doubt in this one, with the referee scoring it 60-54.
The only blot for the hometown fighters came in the show opener when Peter 'Desperate' Dunn chalked up his tenth win in 46 fights with a solid performance against Steve Russell. Russell had plenty of support but the experienced Dunn had too much for him and was put down twice heavily in the first round.
Promoter Neil Featherby, backed by local businessman Carl Moore, put on a good show, unfortunately at times the boxing didn't quite match the atmosphere, but the arena was full of local sportsmen, as well as some of the all time greats of the british ring in John H. Stracey, Jim McDonnell, Charlie Magri, John 'The Beast' Mugabi and Alan Minter.
