Elwell's surprise title shot ends in quick defeat by Tom Podmore Mar 27th 2008

Stuart Elwell's surprise crack at the WBA Intercontinental welterweight title ended in painful defeat on Tuesday night (March 25) when he was taken out in two rounds by the hard-hitting champion, Ukraine's Vyacheslav Senchenko. Union Boxing Promotion (Yuri Raban) promoted. The former Royal Marine Commando always had the odds stacked against him. Firstly, he was taking on his opponent in his backyard, the Druzhba Sports Palace in Donetsk, Ukraine – a personal fortress he'd boxed at on seven occasions. And secondly, Senchenko entered the contest with an unblemished 25-0 (18) pro ledger that had been compiled in good company. Still, Elwell had nothing to lose and all to gain. A win would have seen him rated in the World Boxing Association's top 15 (possibly top ten), pick up the Intercontinental strap and scalp a touted prospect. A loss has done nothing to harm his domestic ranking, however, and that's probably the reason he took the chance. But it confirms that Elwell, a former undefeated Midland Area 10st 8lbs champion and English title challenger who famously iced Francis Jones in one back in 2006, is only a domestic-level operator. Senchenko, meanwhile, has slowly built his unblemished record against some decent European-level names. Stephane Benito, who gave future British champion Kevin Anderson a good fight a few years back, was stopped in seven and Bruce Faradji, who won the WBF title on these shores against Jozsef Matolcsi and battled Junior Witter and David Barnes, was outpointed over 12. And he'd unanimously outpointed Vladimir Khodokovski, who took current WBU welterweight boss Michael Jennings, a former British welterweight champion, the full eight rounds a few months later, over 12 last April. Vyacheslav also took out Sasha Snip in four, the same Belarusian who was stop in two by Ross Minter last year. The 30-year-old is now targeting a crack at the WBA interim welterweight belt, currently held by Yuri Nuzhnenko, before the end of 2008. An all-Ukraine clash with Kiev's Nuzhnenko, 27-0, would capture the imagination of the nation, bring in some decent money and, more importantly, would be a winnable proposition for Senchenko. The full WBA champion, by the way, is Miguel Cotto, the Puerto Rican body banger who has looked unbeatable in recent times. With all due respect, Senchenko isn't in his league at this moment and isn't likely to be enough of a high-profile fight for someone of Cotto's stature. But Senchenko had the class to admit he isn't ready for the likes of Miguel Cotto and is pencilled in to make another one or two defences of his Intercontinental title over the course of the next eight or nine months. He then plans to seek fights with one of the world champions at 147lbs next year. And though Errol Johnson-trained southpaw Elwell, a former national amateur champion and England captain, started busily, looking to get his jab working, the champion (first defence) boxed calmly on the back foot, watching and assessing what kind of threat was in front of him. The fast-handed Ukrainian, after assessing the level of threat in the opening three minutes, stepped up the ferocity of the attack in the early stages of the second. A straight right wobbled the Englishman early on and, despite his best efforts to cover up, a rasping right to the body put the 30-year-old Midlander on the floor moments later. Stuart showed typical Black Country grit to get up, albeit on wobbly pins, but was driven to the ropes immediately and under some heavy, two-fisted pressure from Senchenko, now 26-0 (19), when the referee decided enough was enough and saved the challenger from a nastier fate. Back to the domestic scene for the Darlaston plumber, now 11-2 (1), who hopes to get a second crack at the English title, currently vacant but being fought out in May between Nottingham's Adnan Amar and Telford's unbeaten Mark Lloyd, who shares a trainer with Stuart, in the coming year. It was set for 12.

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