North West unites for bumper bill by Terry Dooley Aug 15th 2007

Saturday saw a massive ten fight bill take place at the Liverpool Olympia as the best talent from the cities of Liverpool and Manchester were showcased by the increasingly busy Wally Dixon promotional banner. The decaying grandeur of the Olympia provides a surprisingly good backdrop for a night of boxing and as I took my seat and awaited the commencement of the fight I was aglow with a sense of the North West uniting through boxing.  This glow was soon shattered by quick-fingered lifting of my programme, which contained all the details of weights and bill changes, from the seat right next to me by, I presume, a passer by. With my notebook clutched tightly to my chest I settled back for the fights as Manchester-born Amir Unsworth made his way to the ring. Unsworth has been busy of late and started brightly, if messily, against Scotland's Mark Bett as the six times two-minute rounds opener got underway. Unsworth used his jab well in the opener, occasionally dipping his knees then firing the shot home. Bett learned from this and started the second round moving behind his own jab. Bett had also learned that Unsworth was dipping low before certain shots and, after tagging Amir with a right uppercut and left hook to the body, caught Unsworth with a solid right uppercut counter as Unsworth dipped his knees. There was semi-perceptible buckle in the legs of Unsworth a few times in this round as Bett worked well behind his jab. Coming into the third Amir was slightly reddened around the temples and he was soon red around the ribs as Bett opened the round strongly with a burst of hooks to the body. Amir stayed calm then stepped to the side to land his own right hook. It was a see-saw round, you would think Amir would have been discouraged after a strong second stanza showing from Bett but Amir was the one who came under fire early in third only to come back stronger as the round wore on. It was all over midway, 1:40, through the fourth as Amir worked behind his jab once again then brought in a few right hooks to the body of Bett. Bett was slowing down at this point, a left hook counter made him go a bit wobbly at one point before a left hook and right hook to the head forced him to concede ground. Bett was now in retreat and a clumping right hand to the head forced the stoppage from referee Michael Alexander. Bett complained about the stoppage yet both men had fired off their best shots and Amir's were proving the more decisive. Next up came a bout between Liverpool's Joey Ainscough, 12st 2lb, and Ernie Smith, 11st 11lb, in a match that was fought over six two-minute rounds. Ainscough showed a good boxing brain by constantly giving Smith movement coupled with light scoring blows. As the rounds progressed Joey looked like a man who was working on his technique during a touch sparring session whereas Smith, when he did get through, looked like the puncher. In the third round Ainscough did come inside and looked good there as he landed a right hand that sent the sweat spraying from Smith. It was becoming an academic exercise as the well-schooled boxing of Joey carried him through the first five rounds without dropping a point. In particular a left uppercut followed shortly by a booming right hand from Ainscough caught the eye. Whilst coming out for round six Smith smiled and winked at his female companion before going on the defensive and scoring well off the back foot, well enough to win the round on my card.  Referee Howard Foster scored it 60-54 for Ainscough whereas BBN had it 59-55. The next bout was a rematch between Manchester's Rhys Roberts, 8st 11 ¾ lb, from Manchester and Wolverhampton's Delroy Spencer, 8st 7 ½ lb, who had been unlucky in losing the first match between the two on points in June. This time there was to be no repeat of that close bout as Roberts made sure he ironed-out his mistakes from the first fight whilst taking a well-earned decision over six two-minute rounds. Roberts committed early to ensure that he was not out-worked in the fight. Very little landed it must be said yet over the first three rounds Roberts was the one doing all the work. Roberts's moves a little bit like Roy Jones and, in this fight at least, his defence was part movement part offence as he flurried at Spencer. In the fifth round Roberts really found his range with the left hook then let go a jab, right hand to the body and left hook to the head combination. Roberts keeps his left hand low yet carries a high right hand and the two conspire to give him a good defence. After six rounds there was no need to break out a calculator (someone would probably have nicked it) as Roberts won 60-55 on the card of Michael Alexander. BBN scored it 60-54 for Roberts. The next fight was an interesting and bemusing one as Tony Quigley, 12st 9 ½ lb, took on Slovakian fighter, and Scrabble champion, Jevgenijs Andrejevs over four three-minutes rounds. Jevgenijs looked a little bit like ‘Me, Myself and Irene' era Jim Carrey and certainly brought an element of comedy to the proceedings. For his part Liverpool's Quigley concentrated on his own work, in particular a sweet right hand hook to the body in round one. A right hand to the head in the second round wobbled Jevgenijs early in the second round as Quigley methodically went about his work. Tony looked slightly fleshy and certainly likes to fight at his own pace; this may pose a problem in the future. Jevgenijs threw a few awkward shots in the second round but his favoured combination was a double-hand slap to the ears that the Marquis of Queensbury would not have approved off. By the third Quigley's well placed shots were bashing Andrejevs about, the Slovakian was boxing like Pinocchio minus the strings and the poise by this point. Then, suddenly, Andrejevs went on a crazy punching rampage. Quigley blocked most of the shots yet such was the uncoordinated nature of his opponent's attack a concerned fan shouted to Quigley, “He thinks he's out on the piss Tony”. Andrejevs was punching from every erroneous angle you can think of. Quigley kept calm, and then drilled his opponent with counters. Andrejevs finished this highly discombobulated round by accidentally kneeing Quigley in the testicles whilst trying to move away from a body shot. It was a case of seeing it through for Quigley in the final round yet there was one more moment of craziness from Andrejevs as he landed a solid right hook from the southpaw stance. That does not sound crazy to you? Well he followed it up with his, by now patented, double-hand cuff to the head of Quigley. Andrejevs celebrated like a winner at the end of the fight, his shorts said ‘Lucky' on one side and ‘Fakir' on the other but even he was not going to be that lucky as Tony was given a 39-37 win. BBN had it 40-36. It was a battle of rangy boxers in the next bout as Shaun Farmer, 11st 3 ¼ lb, took on Paddy Pollock over six two-minute rounds. It was a frustrating fight, both men would often move towards one another only to tangle messily on the inside. Throughout the bout Farmer produced the better punching to force Pollock back. Paddy did turn in left hooks as the rounds wore-on but he was constantly playing second-fiddle to Farmer who deserved his 59-55 win. In the next fight we were given another rematch as Scott Quigg, 8lb 12 lb, defeated Shaun Walton, 9st 2 ½ lb, on points over six two-minute rounds. Fight one had been stopped prematurely in June after Quigg had caught Walton with a right hand that had sent Walton flying backwards to prompt a stoppage loss. In this the rematch Quigg underlined his superior fire power whilst again bouncing Walton backwards with superior shots from both hands. Quigg would move Walton into perfect punching positions then fire with impunity. Occasionally a jab would come back his way only for Quigg to block with his right then fire his own jab. You could see two reasons for the early stoppage in June. The first is that Walton would reel from shots when caught clean, the second is that the action was so samey Howard Foster probably made the right call in the first bout. There was no controversy this time; Quigg deserved his 60-54 win across the board. Denton Vassell then pounded out, and I mean pounded, a four three-minute rounds win over Gatis Skuja who recently upset Delroy Mitchell in Birmingham. In this bout there was to be no upset as Vassell gave away weight to Skuja yet still hit him with some wrecking ball shots. A double left hook, body and head, set the scene early for Vassell as Denton went about his task with abandon. A right uppercut left hook went in also before Skuja tied Vassell up on the inside. Denton was firing his left hooks with commitment in the first round yet he was also committing the error of bringing his right hand away from his chin as he did so. Consequently Skuja tagged him with a few lead lefts hooks in the second round; one left hook gave Vassell pause for thought. A left hook on the inside by Vassell was followed by a right hand before Skuja again got his own left hook off.  Vassell came out behind his jab a little in the third round before ditching it in favour of the power shots. In particular the left hook to the body worked well yet instead of jabbing his way in before letting the shot go Vassell was taking a step, dipping to the side and then letting the shot fly. If he steps in with a jab he can let the shot go in one movement whilst having jabbed his way closer to his foe. A left hook and right hook late in the round caused Skuja to lurch to one side before being caught by a right uppercut and left hook also. It was painful to watch at times and Vassell winced a little himself as he hit Skuja clean with a right hand through the middle early in round four. A solid left hook from Vassell was another peach of a punch before Skuja showed he is harder than harder than nails by landing his own right and left hook to the body of Vassell. The score of 40-36 came as no surprise and the crowd had enjoyed the power punching on display.  Vassell talked to BBN the next day. His first request? A list of mistakes he made in the bout so he can go into the gym and work on them this week ahead of a fight on the Morris-Simpson bill. In truth Vassell looked good despite the loose right hand, his punching is fierce enough yet it could be varied a bit more, if you make every shot a humdinger your opponent will go into a shell and anticipate them.  Vassell could do worse than work on varying the speed and power in his shots to ensure that when the big shots arrive his opponent is not ready for them.  The solid punching commitment shown by Vassell was echoed by Stephen Burke, 10st 6lb, who destroyed Craig Tombs at the end of the first round of a scheduled four-round bout. Burke came out with a two-fisted attack to send his fans into an orgy of cheers and shouts. Tombs came out of this early assault with a busted nose and broken ambition.  Two right hooks to the body prompted a stiff one-two from Tombs but Burke was not to be denied and he hammered Tombs with a left hook to prompt the stoppage at 2:53 of the round. The penultimate bout saw John Watson, 10st 1 ¼ lb, ease his way to a win over southpaw Johnny Greaves, 9st 11 ¾ lb, by a score of 40-36. It had been a long night and a fair few fans had departed after the Burke fight, those who did missed a good boxing exhibition as Lee Murtagh used his southpaw skills to defeat Graham Delehedy. Murtagh, 11st 3lb, produced six rounds of excellence by constantly wrong-footing Delehedy, 11st 2lb, who has some hard work to do after going 1-2 in his last 3. Murtagh boxed behind a wide-legged stance in the early rounds, he would often show his left hand to Delehedy before scoring with that very same fist. Delehedy was loading up with his own right hand despite not being in a position to land it, at one point in round two Murtagh simply leaned back from the shot then got his own blows in. Murtagh got caught with a few feint right hands in the third but, in truth, a lot of the shots were bouncing off his shoulders. Graham was loading up on rights as mentioned but Murtagh was moving to his own right and away from that shot so, therefore, was not there to be hit. By the fifth Delehedy needed to flip the script of this fight, his left hook had sporadic success but he seemed to be enamoured with the idea that his right would dig him a way into this fight. It did not happen and Murtagh was not just top-soiling with his shots by this point, he was really digging them in. Delehedy did save face by taking the final round and it was on the basis of using that left hook, two left hooks went in late from Graham but it was academic as it seemed he had lost comfortably.  BBN scored the fight 59-55 for the visitor from Leeds, Howard Foster scored it closer at 58-57 meaning one round for Delehedy would have resulted in a draw, that seemed unlikely from my seat but all this is now speculation. Delehedy powered-up too much and paid the price, in the end he was left bemused and diffused by the canny southpaw in front of him.

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