Matvienko loses his ‘0’ on raucous VIP show by Terry Dooley Sep 15th 2008

Bolton's Alex Matvienko was left bitterly disappointed after losing his unbeaten record to Lee Edwards at Wigan's Robin Park arena on Sunday. Matvienko also lost out on his first professional title, the vacant British Masters title was at stake. The fight itself was scheduled for ten-threes only for Alex to box the early rounds like a man negotiating the six-twos distance. Matvienko (11st exactly) came out stalking only for Edwards (10st 13lbs) to counter with a jab. This early exchange set the early pattern for the fight. During the early exchanges Matvienko would throw furious shots to the body and head, Edwards countered well and then tied Matt up for long periods. Both men were stung early in the fight. A pair of hooks – left and right – from Edwards in round one made Matvienko's legs wobble momentarily. In round two Edward's ducked too far to his own left, a move he would use with more success as the rounds went on, on this occasion, though, he left himself exposed. Matvienko responded to this lapse with a huge right hand. Edwards certainly felt the shot, his legs splayed and he had to perform a limbo move in order to keep his balance in check. Alex's follow-up shots were, again, wide and wild, leaving Edwards free to negotiate the last few seconds of the round. Edwards's tactic of holding, scoring and then spoiling negated Matvienko's constant, and not always accurate, punching. By the fifth it was becoming one of those fights in which you either like the more frugal efficiency, mixed with holding, of one man; or the relentless pressure, mixed with profligacy, of the other fighter. In this round, also, there was a crucial moment. Edwards boxed behind his jab early, he also held a lot, the tactic was effective, it was also aggrieving for Matvienko, late in the round Alex took the law into his own hands by head-butting Edwards on the inside. It was a crazy move, one that left referee Steve Gray with no choice but to take a point away from Matvienko, with the fight being very close throughout it would turn out to be a costly moment of folly from Alex. Throughout the bout Matvienko was occasionally out-boxed without ever looking danger of being out-gunned, the problem, though, lay in the fact that Matvienko took his winning rounds by putting in huge efforts, whereas Edwards nicked his rounds and could then do enough to eke his work out throughout the bout. Neither man had been past six rounds thus far in their career; Humphrey and Oliver Harrison had whipped Matvienko into fantastic shape, only for Alex's own hectic pace to count against him as the fight wore on. By round eight both were trading right hands, the crowd would alternate between cheering Matvienko's work and complaining about the, perfectly legal, spoiling type of fight fought by Edwards. Cut around both eyes going into the final two stanzas it seemed that Matvienko had shot his bolt in the earlier going. Both men landed left hooks at the same time late in round nine, after good early work by Edwards, this then led to a minute-long exchange of shots along the ropes as both men tried to nick the round. In my mind, especially given the point deduction, Matvienko needed a knockdown, or even worse a KO, to salvage the fight in the final round. Sure, Matvienko had put more shots out in the fight yet his accuracy was not on a par with Edwards, who boxed a cynical fight, and cynical boxing often settles these slender title fights. Matvienko strengthened my impression of the fight by coming out strongly in the final round. Roared on by the crowd ‘The One Man Riot' let it all hang out. It was a case of too many wasted shots, even in this final round the punches were wide and wild at times, Matvienko should have kept his boxing tight, often in the past he has got behind the jab and worked the body of his opponent, so often, also, he has ditched the jab and let it all hang out. When the bell went it seemed that he had been ‘too honest' in this his first title bout. Referee Gray raised the hand of Edwards, much to the chagrin of the crowd. BBN had it by the same margin as the referee, 94-95 for Edwards, with the point deduction proving to be a huge blow in this type of fight. It had been brisk all the way through, a rematch would be a sound move but Edwards may not be keen to come to Wigan again. Matvienko falls to 11-1-2 (4). Edwards moves to 8-1 (1). The show had kicked off with a war in the form of a seemingly pointless rematch between Gary Davies (8st 10 ½lbs) and Ghana's Sumaila Badu (8st 10 lbs). Davies had KO'd the same opponent in two rounds this June, however in the rematch Davies was forced to the wire by the tough man in front of him. Both traded right hands throughout the fight, one right hand; landing behind the ear, put Davies over heavily in the third round, shaded of roles reversed from the first fight. Davies was then forced into a firefight. Badu's set himself a target area of ‘any port in a storm'; he battered Davies about the shoulders, neck and chest, leaving red marks behind. As the right hands continued to flow from both men, Badu would stick his tongue out to signal that he was nonplussed by the power on display this time around. This all changed, though, in round five as Davies, who was now cut by his left eye, was greeted by a huge right hook, this opened his wound even deeper. Badu was looking relaxed, and in the ascendancy, appearances can be deceiving though, a big right hand from Davies dumped Badu to the canvas later in the round. Badu rolled backwards after getting to his feet, despite this referee Steve Gray deemed him fit to continue. Davies took matters into his own hands, he hit Badu with enough clean rights to force Gray to second guess his earlier decision, he stepped in to signal the finish at 2:54 of the round. Given his wobbly legs those final six seconds could have been damaging for the man from Ghana, who can come again on this form. Davies rises to 7-2-1 (5); Badu's record now stands at 4-11 (1). Chris Johnson is a strange one. Seemingly content to sleepwalk through his bouts the man from Chorley can also bring bouts to a sudden end with bursts of quality southpaw shots. Versus David Kirk, however, we were again treated to a lethargically skilled Johnson display. Johnson (11st 5lbs) came out for rounds one and two like a man being paid by the jab. Kirk (11st 2lbs) could not do anything with Johnson. This resulted in early rounds in which my only decent note was, ‘Has David Krik had a haircut recently?' As was usually the case with Chris he was writing his own fight report by staying almost exclusively behind the jab, save for the odd well-picked shot. Round three led to an interesting development as I realised that Kirk had indeed had a haircut, he now looked even more like 1980's action star Michael Biehn than had been the case when I last saw Kirk in action. In the final round Chris, once again, teased us all by coming close to looking like he was going for the stoppage, throwing a crisp 1-2-3 before then going back behind his jab. Referee Keith Garner turned in a 40-36 scorecard, as did BBN, this did not tell the true story of the fight, this honour was left to Kirk himself as he told Johnson that he had never been hit with shots as crisp as the ones Johnson had hit him with, Kirk also said, “You only live once”, either Kirk is an error-prone James bond fan, or he was telling Johnson to pull his finger out in future fights. With more work to the body, and more urgency, Johnson could be a problem for any fighter in and around his class bracket. Johnson now has a 9-1 (5) record, with his first loss, on his debut night, perhaps accounting for his caution in the ring; Chris was stopped in two by Paul Porter in 2006 after rushing his own work. Kirk falls to 11-72-3 (0). Lee Jennings built on his fine professional debut in June by once again thrashing his opponent with every punch in the book, and some from the first draft. On this occasion, however, Jennings went a step further as he opened his KO account by taking out John Van Emmenis in two rounds. Liverpool's Jennings (9st 6 ½lbs) hammered his opponent with left hooks in the first round before then harassing John (9st 9 ½lbs) with lefts – in particular a fine left hook and left hook cum uppercut double – to the body in round two. Jennings then switched his attack again, a right hand, that landed behind the head of the ducking Van Emmenis, put John over for a count, upon rising another right hand took him out of the fight at 2:01 of the round. It was a clean KO win for Jennings, he is now 2-0 (1), Bideford's John (you already know his surname) is 1-5-1, four of his defeats have come by the stoppage route, after yesterdays loss he may want to turn it in. Another fighter who may be thinking of turning it in is Johnny Greaves; the man from East Ham endured a torrid pounding at the hands of Bolton's Rick Goddins. Such was the amount of punches thrown, and landed by Goddins in this fight you are probably best of making your own fight report. Take a jab, a right hand, a left hook (to body and head), a right hook (to body and head), a left uppercut and a right uppercut (again to body and head), then multiply them all by about 50, there you have it, instant fight report. In the event itself, four-threes of some serious head shots, Greaves (10st 4lbs) was reduced to actually celebrating, with shuffles, smiles and winks, every time he got hit, literally taking the crowd out of the fight. Goddins kept his calm in the face of some serious taunting. Instead, electing to hit his opponent with every punch going. By the final round Greaves was showing his chin, which had been out all night, Goddings retorted with a solid left hook to the head of Johnny, who responded with a shout of, “Come on son. You aren't going to stop me!” This proved to be true. Referee Keith Garner's 40-36 was academic, add the numbers together and you will be close to the amount of clean shots taken by Greaves, who deserves respect. Goddins is now 4-0 (0), he has a serious power shortage, or maybe he fills his opponent with a pigheaded desire to last the distance, either way he hit Greaves, now 1-16 (1), with some hellacious shots, if the KO was going to come it would have come yesterday. For his part the stubborn Greaves is probably sat in a bar somewhere thinking “And I've got more KO's than an all you mate”. Martin Murray and Jack Arnfield, two VIP Promotions hopefuls, both impressed on the bill. Murray (12st 1lbs) came out to big cheers and then mowed over the ineffectual Carl Wild (12st 12lbs) in a fight that was optimistically scheduled for six-threes. The optimism stems from the fact that the impressively built Murray looks like he should be knocking guys out yet, in some senses like Denton Vassell, has been taken the distance by some guys he should have stopped. However, St Helen's Murray was coming off five consecutive decision wins; Sheffield's Wild was coming off two clean KO losses; there was some shrewd matchmaking afoot here. Murray twice hammered his opponent to the floor in round two, both times with left hooks to the body, by the second touchdown it was clear that Wild was not going to get to his feet, leaving referee Gray with no choice but to dispense with the count. Murray rises to 8-0 (2). Wild has a 6-9 (1) slate. Blackpool's Jack Arnfield was also poised to post home a second round stoppage win only for the Bobby Rimmer trained stylist to take his finger off the trigger, after flooring his man with a sweet straight right hand in round two. Arnfield (11st 2lbs) then floored Jon Harrison (11st 3lbs) for a second time in the round, with plenty left on the clock, only to then negate his own space in search of the finish. Harrison, from Plymouth, staged a mini version of ‘The Great Escape' as he fiddled his way through the rest of the four-threes distance. Leaving many scratching their heads as to how Jack failed to stop his man. Despite this it was another impressive performance by Arnfield, with a few steps back, and a bit of patience, the KO would have definitely come; Jack may be keeping his powder dry ahead of his November homecoming fight. Arnfield went the distance last time out in his hometown of Blackpool, against David Kirk, and will be keen to have a stoppage by the seaside next time around. With his long limbs, tight jab, and solid right hand, plus with Rimmer increasingly getting him to close space and hook, Arnfield is now backing up his physical gifts with some solid boxing. In the event, though, he had to be content with a 40-35 win on the scorecard of referee Keith Garner. BBN had it by the same margin and perhaps Jack can take comfort from the fact that he won a four-round fight by a five-point margin. After a show dominated by a raucous atmosphere, fuelled by knockouts and wars, it was only natural that a lumbering heavyweight fight should close out the show. Scott Mitchell (16st 9lbs) boxed with more poise than is usually the case, easing his way in behind the jab and tying his man up when need be. Ben Harding (19st 8lbs) was sporting the kind of all-over tan that must pose a logistical nightmare for a man of his size. It was typical British heavyweight action, earnest if not spectacular, and topped off by a points decision, Mitchell winning 59-55 on the scorecard of Keith Garner, and BBN as it goes. Mitchell rises to 3-1 (0). Harding has a pitchfork; he falls to 1-1-1. Photos By Allan Stevenson For more photos of the bouts from Wigan (by Andy Ball), visit: www.youtube.com/ballyupnorth

Go back Comment on this article | Send to a friend | Print

Photos by Andy Ball Sep 22nd 2008, 17:34:57 by ballyupnorth Terry another superb article and a pleasure to sit ringside with you at longlast .. Kevin/Ian thanks for allowing the link above for my photos on YouTube - 281 have watched the slideshow/music of the fight so far ... ... More to come. Bally