Mixed Night for Debutants on VIP Show by Terry Dooley Jun 18th 2007

It was a night of conflicting professional debuts in Bolton on Saturday as VIP launched their inaugural Summer dinner show by showcasing four fighters making their pro debuts – two fighters turned professional in the same fight. First up was Salford's Nigel Travis, 11st 11lb, who secured a point's win over six two-minute rounds. His opponent – Leeds boy Ryan Rowlinson – failed to win a round during the course of a sometimes-messy contest. The fight itself featured a few warnings administered to both sides by referee Keith Garner as, first, Travis was warned for leaning in with his head before Rowlinson let a shot go on the call of ‘break'. Once the action settled-down Travis scored frequently with right hooks to the body followed by lefts hooks to the head. Travis was the fighter in pursuit and occasionally, perhaps due to this being his first fight, would pin Rowlinson, 11st 10lb, down then fail to open-up. By the second round Travis was dominating the untidy action, in fact the only success for Rowlinson came when Travis briefly dropped his hands late in the round. Rowlinson was unable to build on this minute success despite coming out like Bruce Willis for the first thirty seconds of the third round; Travis covered-up then stepped-back and clipped Rowlinson with a nice right hand off the back foot. Repeated right hands to the body had caused Ryan to dip into a crouch by the fourth and it came as no surprise when a hefty right hand to the body dropped him for the eight-count. Eager to secure the finish Travis cancelled the body blitz and attacked Ryan with right hooks and left hooks to the head, unfortunately Nigel smothered his own work at this point. Early in the bout Ryan had gambled on roundhouse shots Ray Charles could see coming and Nigel was able to close out the two last rounds by mixing his jab with body shots. At the end of the fight the referees' verdict was 59-55. BBN had it 60-53, as Ryan had not consistently tried to win a round. Next up was Carl Dilks, 12st 11lb, who showed improvement on his last fight despite, or because of, facing the same opponent as he did on his pro debut, as he beat Carl Wild, 12st 10lb, over six two-minute rounds. Predictably Wild came out with feral intent and plenty of jabs and feints. Unfazed Dilks popped in a nice right hand then followed through with a trio of body shots – left hook, right hook and left hook – to claim the first round. It was impressive to see Liverpudlian Dilks confidently claim ring centre, and hold it, throughout the bout. Dilks flicked his left hooks over the jab of Wild to methodically and precisely, no poor virtues them, take the second round also. In the fourth Wild switched to the southpaw stance then got his angles all wrong and found himself being clipped by a right hand. Unable to claim the centre ground Wild was forced to move like a gazelle evading a lion and to his credit some of his Kamikaze attacking paid-off in this round. A maul along the ropes ended with Dilks pouring forth shots only to see Wild grit his teeth and respond with enough strength to bring forth blood from the nose of Dilks. Dilks looked tired in the corner at the end of this round. Despite Wild standing firm in the prior round Dilks had shown some fine boxing, controlled and precise with his shots as well as his continuing claim over ring centre. Reborn, Wild came out behind a burst of hooks in the fifth round to turn Dilks' steadily bleeding nose into a quite messy red-bandana of blood. A jab cum left hook followed by a right hand by Dilks brought a roar from his fans as well as ensuring that Wild's nose joined in the bloodletting. Dilks boxed his way through the final round before referee Keith Garner raised his hand and turned in a surprisingly close 58-57 card in favour of Dilks. BBN had it 59-55. Next up came the pro debuts of Dewsbury's Zahid Kahur and local favourite Scott Mitchell. Both men were said to be raw as well as being, praise the lord, heavyweights. As both men came out someone at ringside noted that ‘someone is going to get knocked-out here' and it almost happened as Zahid surprised everyone by powering his way to a points win over six two-minute rounds. Zahid, 15st 7lb, danced around in a circle prior to getting into the ring and seemed to be a big bag of nervous energy as bounded around throughout the fight. Mitchell, 16st exactly, was roared into the ring by his fans but they could not help him in the first round as Zahid's matchmaker scaring style, or absence of a discernable style, gave Scott fits. Mitchell scored first with a right hand before being forced to take a left hook and left uppercut from his southpaw opponent. Mitchell bounced back with a right hand, left hook and right hook but Zahid was so unorthodox in his reply; he leaned over to his right and turned-up a right uppercut followed by a straight left. Round two pretty much sealed the fight as Mitchell came out banging to reduce the fight into a rock ‘em and sock ‘em affair with Zahid's unorthodox punch delivery giving him the advantage. Mitchell powered home two big left hooks only to find that Zahid had adjusted his own feet to power in a bigger left uppercut, the cleanest shot of the fight so far. Mitchell's knees had temporarily gone so absent as to leave his legs swaying in the wind and Zahid sensed his moment before smashing in a couple of more lefts to drive Mitchell across the ring into the ropes. A right hook sent Mitchell's defence to where his knees had gone yet, somehow, he managed to stay on his feet and cover a little. Zahid smashed at him unorthodoxly for the remainder of the round. Mitchell looked like a man returning from the Alamo, inexperience had told on both sides; Zahid had not picked his shots and Mitchell had not taken a knee when he was hurt. To his credit Scott came out stalking in the third, his steps were measured and careful in case his legs betrayed him and for his part Zahid was waiting for his chance to strike. Mitchell was certainly not gun-shy; he threw a right hand and left hook. At one point Zahid did land his left uppercut, the crowd drew in its breath, Mitchell took a step back then stepped back in behind his right hand to show character and win the round. Coming into the fight Zahid had had the wide-eyed look one naturally attributed to nervous energy yet even by the fourth he had the white-eyed look of a Vietnam vet. Zahid had impact in every shot he landed and this was the difference as the final rounds ticked by. His wait, wait, wait, now!, attack!, attack! style was reminiscent of a school ground brawl and the fight overall was reminiscent of a war. Long periods of posturing followed by sudden and vicious attacks. Mitchell landed some meaty body shots on Zahid's tall and slender frame throughout the final two rounds. Despite his good work rate Mitchell carried with him the air of a man in danger throughout all the rounds and by the final bell it was no surprise to see that Zahid's impact punching had won him the fight. Referee Keith Garner scored the fight 58-57 whereas BBN had them three rounds apiece with one 10-8 round, the second, giving the fight to Zahid, and deservedly so despite a smattering of boos. Mitchell had been gone (not duke McKenzie gone either, he was really hurt) in that second round, beyond that he was fighting to get into the fight whereas Zahid, for his part, looked like a man hesitating on his endgame strategy. Finally came an interesting pro debut on this night of debuts, as Wigan's popular Scott Crompton turned pro against the ever-ready Ernie Smith. Crompton, 11at 13lb, was a wrestler in a former sporting life – a real wrestler, not WWE – and had won four hundred contests whilst only losing three. This former career was evident in his formidably built upper body. Smith, 12st exactly, had watched all the nights fights from a balcony whilst chatting to a female companion. Ernie winked at his companion during his ring walk yet was not given time to ease into the fight as the eager Crompton went for it early-doors. Crompton landed a left hook and right hand before powering Smith to the ropes with another, long, right hand. As mentioned Crompton looks strong on his upper body and, initially, was showing a lot of upper body movement. However one was given the impression that Crompton does not find this movement natural in regard to boxing and this was borne out as the movement subsided over the course of the bout as his stamina ebbed. By the third Scott had lost his upper body movement so Smith landed a jab followed by a right hand to the body to let Crompton know this veteran could box a bit. In the fourth Scott was still trying to force the body movement when he should have just covered-up and sent out those long-armed straight shots behind a tight guard. Smith landed a few jabs only for Scott to send over a right hand followed by a right to the body. Smith replied with a one-two only for Scott to counter during the hyphen with his own jab. By the final rounds Smith had a bloody nose yet one sensed he wanted to show he could box a bit behind his jab as he traded punches with Scott. Smith came out on his toes for the final round and indeed got his point across as he popped in right hands and left hooks. On the final bell Smith waved to his female companion. Another day another dust-up. After a tough debut test Scott had won the fight 60-55 on the scorecard of Keith Garner whereas BBN had the fight a closer 58-56. VIP will host a show next week in Wigan's Robin Park Centre featuring Michael Gomez as well as up-and-coming fighters such as Brian Rose and Alex Matvienko plus VIP new-boy Gary Sykes. Tickets are available from the VIP website - http://www.vipboxingequipment.co.uk

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