Round up of non-televised O2 Arena action by Tom Walker Jul 16th 2007

Yet again BBN were denied press accreditation by Sports Network and I'm willing to bet that Frank Warren is oblivious to the fact. However, never let it be said that BBN reporters can't get their thoughts down on a Sports Network bill, and this bill had the best and the worst of boxing. The worst being the heavyweight clash so eagerly anticipated between Michael Sprott and Matt Skelton. To describe this bout as dire is to lavish praise on it, as it was without a shadow of doubt the messiest boxing match any of us unlucky enough to witness it, will have had to endure! It was so bad that the crowd remaining at the time were wont to slow handclap and generally show their disapproval to the chants of “What a load of rubbish”. The other side of the coin was that most of the other bouts provided entertainment, no little action and plenty of talking points. I know that boxing derives a lot of its income at that level from television and as such who pays the piper calls the tune. However, the demands of the square box did put unnecessary time constraints on the organisation, to the extent that in order to catch the tube back into town, the last one leaving the Dome station at 12.16 a.m. it meant that I had to miss the Bradley Pryce bout which was one that I particularly wanted to see, or end up forking out a small fortune for a taxi on top of the £150 ticket I'd bought to get a decent view of proceedings for these notes. A note at this point for Frank's “gophers” on the night, can you organise the doors to be open in time for the start of the first bout? It is stupid to have Steve Foster Jnr opening his bout to an empty hall; he is a good boxer and should have had the benefit of an audience when he came into the ring and for the most part of the first round! Foster went at the unfortunate Bulgarian Vladimir Borov in the second round with intent using his right and left hooks to the body, and the Bulgarian is having to hold onto Foster as early as the second and takes a mandatory count in the third with a heavy right hook from the Salford boxer. Towards the end of the third he's down again and the referee calls it off after 2.59 mins of the third. This was all one way traffic, and it was heading towards the diminutive Bulgarian throughout the round and a half that I saw. Jamie Cox of Swindon made his debut in the paid ranks with a polished performance against Londoner Johnny Greaves over 4 x 3 min rounds and can be pleased with his first showing. He brought a useful knot of fans up with him from Wiltshire, and they were vociferous in their support. Greaves didn't look to comfortable as early as round one with the jabs and hooks that the debutant is dishing out, and Cox looks as though he wants his debut over and done with early. Greaves gives his fans a shrug of the shoulder at the end of the first. Greaves went down from a left hook early in the second to take a standing count. There were several times when the referee had a close look at Greaves throughout this bout, but fair play to the Londoner, he did stay the distance when a lesser man might have folded. Southpaw Cox did look the business and this bout was one he'll no doubt remember fondly. The vacant Southern area super bantamweight title was up for grabs between Matthew Marsh of London and Rocky Dean of Thetford. Dean had a standing count in the opener from Marsh. After the opener, the bout seemed to follow a pattern of Dean forcing the pace while Marsh was catching him on the counter especially towards the end of each round as if to catch referee Ian John-Lewis' eye. This was a well matched bout as from my perspective there wasn't much to separate either of them. Dean had a cut on his scalp in the fifth, but it isn't a problem for him as it is high up. Ian John-Lewis was pretty much a spectator as both these boxers were tidy, accurate and the rounds were undoubtedly close. In the end he gave it to Marsh with a 96 – 94 score. One of the bouts I'd been looking forward to was the irrepressible Kevin Mitchell against the Russian Alexander Hrulev. You always get value for money with the Dagenham man, who oozes confidence in every bout he's in. He's not defensively minded and is always willing to take to give. Ergo you're guaranteed excitement. This bout was for the IBF and the vacant WBO Intercontinental super featherweight championship belt. Try saying that little mouthful when you've had a pint or two. Mitchell opens up with his usual panache while Hrulev seems content to see what is on offer before making any commitment. That said, the Russian is down for a count at the very end of the opener from a body shot from Mitchell. In the second Mitchell did show some exuberance by appearing to toss Hrulev to one side, just prior to dispatching the unfortunate Russian with a super shot which dropped the Russian like the ingredients of some Vodka, “a sack of potatoes”. Kevin Mitchell's impressive slate now has 24 wins from 24 outings and 16 of them early. Martin Concepcion of Leicester was in against Matthew Hall of Manchester in a bout reduced presumably at the behest of TV; from 8 to 6 rounds. Concepcion's record was fairly innocuous by comparison to the Mancunian's, having been on a four run losing streak going into the fray. In a turn up for the book Concepcion put Hall down with a left hook in the opener and Hall looked to have the rubber legs after it. Both men forgot the defence in this bout, but were throwing leather as if it was going out of fashion, with the referee stopping it in favour of the Leicester man, the bout only lasted two minutes but had more action in that two minute spell than the entire Sprott/Skelton debacle which followed later. The title formerly held by Scott Harrison, of WBO featherweight champion was up for grabs with Nicky Cook and Californian Steve Luevano. Cook having the benefit of a large and vocal support, all to no avail as he was down no less than 5 times in this bout. The body shots of southpaw Luevano, doing the damage to Cook on no less than three of those counts. By the eleventh round he'd had enough for it to be stopped. This was a classic matador and bull bout and unfortunately Cook was in the role of the bull, while the stylish Yank was spearing his jab into Cook a la Picador. Cook looked dejected as he made his way back to the dressing-room, but in truth he was well beaten by a better boxer and even his die hard supporters would have no complaint. Fellow reporter James McDonnell was covering the televised aspect of the bill which allowed me some time to file some stuff for the written media in Scotland, so look out for Jim's reports soon. As an aside it was with some surprise that I heard an Aberdonian accent calling my name as I made my way for a “comfort break”, the “Aberdeen Assassin” Lee McAllister and his wife were in the audience with fellow pugilist Carl Greaves. The O2 arena is itself a great venue for boxing and had it been full, would have generated a unique atmosphere, but the flaws in this initial showing tempered it somewhat, the lateness of entry for ticket-holders such that the show had started before the punters could get in en masse, an announcement on a couple of occasions that we should all leave the arena (electronically generated presumably) on the basis of some “incident”, which fortunately was a spurious alarm, and the lateness of the finish when you're out in the far reaches of the Jubilee line with the last tube scheduled to leave the station before the show ended will have given them food for thought next time round. I couldn't fault Frank Warren for his show, but I could for his “gophers” for their continued failure to get BBN accreditation, and their assertion that it is all Frank's decision doesn't wash with me. The very idea that the man at the top of this body gets involved in such minutiae as issuing the passes is ludicrous in the extreme. If the show is good enough we'll be there whether the “gophers” like it or not.

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