Sweet success for Dynamite Dean by Kevin Taylor Feb 12th 2006

Dynamite Dean Phillips came back with a bang last night when he stopped Jon Honney in the second of a six rounder at the York Hall in Bethnal Green last night. It was the end of a frustrating fifteen months for Phillips who has been out of the ring since his loss to Kevin Bennett for the Commonwealth title back in November 2004. Phillips was supposed to be fighting Southern Area champion Rob Jeffries over ten rounds but Jeffries pulled out and experienced Jon Honney took the fight instead. Honney put in a spirited performance in the first round coming back with his own combinations but it was Phillips who was the more accurate and landing with the better and bigger punches. Most of Honney's shots were soaked up by Phillip's good defence although he was caught a couple of times to the body. Phillips was clinical in the second round, Honney was put down with a left hook and Phillips followed up with a right which landed while Honney was down so rather than take an eight-count Honney watched as Phillips was given a long lecture by referee Richie Davies. It was only a matter of time now and after landing three or four more hard punches to Honney's head, Honney's trainer Alan Smith showed compassion to his boxer by throwing in the towel. Honney was unhappy at being stopped but Smith was only protecting his boxer from further punishment. Phillips promoter Frank Maloney was happy with Dean's first fight under their promotional banner and said "I was very impressed by Dean tonight the rest of the lightweight's in Britain better watch out as Phillips is ready for them, if anyone pulls out of the lightweight title fights Phillips will be looking for a shot at the British title. "He'll also bring a real spark back to the Welsh boxing scene, and will be out again before the end of March." Honney said later "He's got power in both hands although I felt I held my own in the first and I felt the towel came in a bit early, but these things happen." Jackson Osei Bonsu made his debut in Britain with the promise of a second round knockout, a left to the body put fellow Belgian Bediouri down in the corner right at the end of the first round, the bell sounded as the count began and Bediouri rose at six but referee Seamus Dunne amazingly stopped the fight much to the disgust the crowd, Bonsu was not happy as he was looking forward to putting on a show for the London fight fans and his trainer joked that he had not told him to throw a punch to the body. Bonsu who boosts a record of 21(19)-1 and came to the ring carrying two union jacks said "The bell had gone to end the round I can't understand why the referee stopped the fight, it certainly wasn't a big shot that finished him. I was looking forward to knocking him out properly in the second round as I had predicted and showing some more of my skills to the British fight fans.” Bediouri who took prospect John O'Donnell the full six rounds in Dublin a couple of weeks back never looked in the fight against top-prospect Bonsu who is rated number three by the EBU. Exciting times are ahead for Bonsu who certainly give our top welterweights a run for their money; he's now going to apply for a British licence and is a welcome addition to the British game. "I'm looking for a title shot before the end of 2006, either a European title shot or a World title shot of some form, I have been waiting long enough the time is right for me now." "I spared with Ricky Hatton last year and if he moves up to welterweight I would really love a shot at him" said Bonsu who will certainly make a lot of friends over here with his laid back attitude and confident approach to boxing. Johnny Armour returned to the ring after back to back defeats and looked in tremendous shape for his six round contest with Birmingham's Delroy Spencer. Spencer giving away over seven pounds certainly held his own for the first couple of rounds and gave Armour a very stern test before Armour started to force the fight in the last couple of rounds to come away with a win. Referee Davies had a wider margin of 60-55 for the well supported Armour who he is looking for one last shot at a title before he finally hangs up the gloves. All credit for Spencer for taking the fight and really coming to win. Paul Porter started well in his debut but looked to be going for the big shot rather than boxing and in the end just seemed to run out of steam, Omar Gumati landed with a couple of good shots and referee Dunne jumped in, again the stoppage seemed very premature and was greeted with a chorus of boys from the knowledgeable York Hall crowd. David Kehoe didn't get rescued by referee Dunne even though he looked in a lot more trouble than the aforementioned Bediouri and Porter and ended up taking a lot more shots than he should of. Floored by a cracking left hook from Lee Cook, Kehoe went down and although he jumped up he was all over the place and sagged back onto the ropes, whether there was also a bit of the old Kehoe ideology as well remains to be seen but he certainly didn't look in a position to continue. He was soon trapped in the corner again and went down under a barrage of punches, but again referee Dunne let it go on. Errol Johnson in Kehoe's corner threw in the towel and it was ignored by referee Dunne, a second towel soon was thrown in and finally Dunne responded by stopping the fight. Debutant Tom Glover worked hard on his debut to beat Stupor's Billy Smith who was always on the front foot and caught Glover with a few shots and in my book the score was a lot closer than the 40-36 given by referee Dunne, but Smith always seems to start a few rounds behind on the referee's cards because of his record. Glover looked assured on his debut and didn't rush or panic against Smith who has only one win in thirty-four fights but is a better boxer than his record shows. Another good night of boxing at the York Hall on a night when it would have be easy for the Maloney's to call the show off after losing to their bigger ticket sellers in Barrett and Jeffries but as normal they put on a good non-televised that was only spoilt by some bad officiating by referee Seamus Dunne. Photos by Karl Stubbs, KarlStubbs.com

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