Walton retraces old steps against Spencer by Tom Podmore Oct 25th 2007

Coventry's Dougie Walton meets Black Country veteran Delroy Spencer in the headline six-threes on Pat Cowdell's dinner show at the Burlington Hotel in Birmingham on Friday night (October 26). The pair first met in an entertaining six-twos at this city centre venue in February, with super-bantamweight Walton winning every session on the scorecard of Terry O'Connor. But thirty-nine-year-old Spencer told promoter Pat Cowdell that he is confident he can get his eleventh professional victory over the longer distance on Friday. Former British, Commonwealth and European champion Cowdell, who trains and manages the unbeaten Coventry scrapper, said: "Spencer fancies his chances with the extra minute in each round. "He doesn't think Dougie can fight at the same ferocious pace for six three-minute rounds." One feels the Walsall fighter will be in for a rude awakening if he truly believes that. Undefeated at 5-0-1 (1), Walton boxed his first six-threes against namesake Shaun ‘Slasher' Walton at the Coventry Skydome a little under a month ago (September 28). That was also a rematch, incidentally. The first fight, at this Second City venue in May, saw Telford's ‘Slasher' decked by Walton's first punch before getting up, standing firm and conceding a 40-35 verdict. But Dougie didn't show, as Spencer is hoping, any tiredness or weariness during their 18-minute rematch, doing his usual tactics of plowing forward, burrowing inside and switching his heavy-handed attacks between head and body against the natural super-featherweight. Ticket-selling Dougie, 26, won the battle of the Walton's for a second time, getting a deserved 60-54 vote from experienced London-based referee Mark Green. And Dougie's shy, laid-back approach outside the ring masks the terrier-like persona he shows once inside the ropes. The flat-footed puncher will do whatever it takes to get the win. Although Delroy is without a win in his last 24 fights, the 70-bout (ten wins, three draws) veteran doesn't roll over, has always mixed at a high level (Damaen Kelly, Lee Haskins, Martin Power, etc) and is seldom halted. The two-time ABA runner-up can certainly look after himself. He won the British Masters flyweight title in 2001 with a decision over then-unbeaten Darren Taylor in London and also holds a four-round win over the reigning English flyweight champion, Stoke's Chris Edwards – who challenges for the vacant British title next month. But Pat Cowdell has big plans for Walton, a former ABA semi-finalist and two-time England Schoolboy international with Willenhall ABC, and that could mean a crack at a Midland Area or British Masters title in the next year. Walton should keep his manager's plans on track. Stourbridge's Sam ‘The Man' Horton, 5-0 (1), who goes over six with Davey Jones, 8-10-1 (0), and West Bromwich southpaw Wayne Downing, 3-5 (0), who meets Derby Luke Galliar, 0-1, complete the three-fight bill.

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