Prince Arron wins Middleweight British Masters title by Terry Dooley Jul 2nd 2007

Prince Arron won the British Masters Middleweight title on Friday with a useful ten-round points win over Cello Renda at Manchester's Midland Hotel. The bouts took place in a room that – with its neo-classical wall coverings and lush carpets – looked a little bit like a Masonic meeting lodge. The Anglo American Sporting Club logo, a logo that is grandly designed but badly implemented with two inverted A's centring it, only added to this impression. A slogan on the wall ‘Truth without Fear' gave me cause to practice my ninth degree Grand Wizard handshake; unfortunately this also caused me to inadvertently bid during the prize auction. Despite being matched harshly at times – he lost to Anthony Small in two rounds after having had only five professional fights – Arron has shown desire and heart in his career so far. He had to show both these qualities on Saturday after being dropped in the first, then hurt in the second, round as Cello found a home for his lead right hands. Despite the loss to the aforementioned Small, plus a point's defeat at the hands of the unbeaten Danny Reynolds (over six rounds), Arron has plugged away, fought regularly and trained hard to improve himself. From the first bell, though, it again looked to be a tough assignment for Arron against the seemingly in-tune Cello. Arron fancies himself as a bit of a shoulder blocker but he is so tall, standing at 6ft 3, that when he does drop his left and turn his shoulder there is still a lot to aim for. Cello, 11st 4lb, came out for the first of the ten three-minute rounds with plenty of fire and ambition. Arron, 11st 6lb, copped a straight right hand from Renda before getting-off with his own one-two. As Arron, ostensibly, got his game together with one-twos his low left hand was providing a big gap for Cello to aim for. Cello responded accordingly to this invite, he fired-over a lead right hand that hit Arron behind the ear and drove him to his knees. Arron seemed more embarrassed than hurt, he beat the count but his backwards movement, coupled with a lax guard, had cost him the first round. Cello did not get time to capitalise, the bell went shortly afterwards, but he landed enough rights to give the impression that the fight would be decided by how well Arron could block the rights thrown by the oncoming Cello. Arron got on his toes early in the second but he was still susceptible to right hands; despite this Arron slipped a jab then scored with his own one-two. Cello had swept the first two rounds, Arron needed to change the pattern of the fight or endure a torrid night in front of his vocal fans. In the third Arron showed ring intelligence by coming out on the front-foot, this ploy worked almost immediately as a right uppercut, the first of many, found its target. This was more assertive boxing from Arron, he imported this control into his back-foot boxing. At this point Cello lost control of the fight: he failed to cut off the ring therefore only succeeded in following Arron around as the man from Droylsden found himself able to move freely. In the third Arron shortened his previously long and looping right hand to the effect that once he put it behind a jab, whilst stepping, in he could catch Cello flush with both shots then bring home uppercuts and body blows. From this point the fight fell into a holding pattern, Cello's trundling movement did not break it. In the fifth the pace dropped favouring the greater range of Arron. A sweet right uppercut snapped Cello's head up. Refusing to rest on the laurels of this blow Arron sent over another right uppercut followed by a left hook to the body. In the seventh Cello seemed to tire a great deal, Arron spotted this and sent in a right uppercut and left hook double that was the best work of the fight so far. Round eight saw the fight come close to an early conclusion as Arron whaled at a faded Cello who covered-up, and seemed done in, but then fought back with a left hook. Arron stepped back for a moment to see if Cello could produce anymore of these shots, on seeing he could not the Prince forced Cello back onto the ropes with jabs and right hands. A right uppercut from Arron went in wildly and widely to leave him exposed to a counter right that briefly replicated Cello's early round successes. In the tenth Arron traded short right hands with Cello to close the fight out, a short right hand went in from Cello at the bell to give the man from Peterborough the final word in the bout. Referee Keith Garner scored the fight 97-93. When Arron punched tightly he dominated the fight against Cello - who later said this was the worst he had ever boxed. For his part the quiet Arron thanked all his fans, plus his opponent then said he was only at the start of his career and had a lot to learn. Arron improves to 8-2 (0) whilst Cello drops to 12-5-1 (7). The undercard saw Lewis ‘Gypsy boy' Smith, 10st 3lb, fortuitously, for some, win his fight with Neil McQuade, 10st 3-½ lb, on points. The bout, over six times two-minute rounds, was certainly close enough for the fight to go Smith's way yet for many, BBN among them, McQuade had been the fighter doing the majority of the scoring. When referee Keith Garner announced Smith a 60-56 winner the people around BBN asked if Keith had watched the same fight, consensus was that McQuade had nicked the verdict. Smith started promisingly coming out behind a stiff jab yet beyond this punch his technique was cuffing, rarely did he land with the knuckle part of the glove. Neil landed a jab plus a left hook to the body and both shots were delivered with accuracy and power. Over the next two rounds Lewis cuffed whereas McQuade punched – particularly with the left hook to the head and right hand to the body – to indicate that it was Neil who was scoring the cleaner blows. In the fifth McQuade slipped a jab then landed a right and left hook on Smith. Such was the confidence of Neil he attempted a big left hook at the rounds end only to see it miss, Smith, though, had stepped so far back he could not counter-punch. Height and reach seemed to nick the final round for Smith but cleaner punching plus consistent work rate should have won the fight for McQuade who was disappointed with both the decision and the margin of the loss. BBN had it 58-56 for McQuade. Smith is now 3-0 (0) whereas McQuade, unluckily, drops to 1-7-1 (0) It was a fight that pitted puncher versus slapper and unfortunately the slaps won out in the end. The evening also featured a female boxing match between Shanee Martin and Svetla Taskova. Martin, 8st 3lb, landed the better shots throughout, plus negated the dangerous left hand of Svetla, 7st 12lb, to win the fight on the scorecards. In this fight the fighter with the better punch technique actually got the nod as Martin won 59-55 against an opponent who, amusingly, jumped off the canvas when throwing hooks. After six two-minute rounds the joke wore a bit thin.

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Yet another home-town decision Jul 3rd 2007, 04:44:08 by nealmcquade I'm glad that this review gives an accurate account of my bout with Lewis Smith and acknowledges that I deserved to win. I seem to be on the bad end of home-town decisions wherever I box, having outboxed almost all of my opponents only for the decision to go their way. My record of 1-7-1 shows nothing of my ability or my performances and only highlights the poor standard of scoring in the domestic boxing scene.