Lloyd downs brave Marshall in Telford by Tom Podmore Dec 2nd 2007

Unbeaten Mark Lloyd successfully made the first defence of his International Masters light-middleweight title with an eight-round retirement over brave Sunderland-based Martin Marshall at Telford's Oakengates Theatre last night. The corner retirement from Tommy Conroy, Marshall's trainer and manager, was spot-on. Although he was competitive throughout, Marshall had was spent and took a lot of Lloyd's punches flush in the two sessions that proceeded the withdrawal between rounds. Gareth Hunt, the nights Master of Ceremonies, announced to the classy Shropshire venue that Marshall's corner had pulled him out of the ten-round contest due to exhaustion. This was the first time Martin had done more than six-threes (18 minutes), by the way. While the popular Telford ticket-seller was delighted to celebrate his latest victory, he knew he'd been in a battle with the fast-handed fighter from Wearside, who managed to take a round off the local during the fight. Now Lloyd will have to prepare himself for his biggest professional test, challenging for the English light-middleweight belt against Wolverhampton-born Andrew Facey, a two-time British title challenger, at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall on January 19. Marshall was, albeit to a lesser degree, similar in style to Facey: tall, long-armed, long body, etc. The fight proved to be good preparation for the ambitious former Midland ABA champ, who knows Facey will be the hardest and most awkward fighter he will have faced. But Lloyd is confident he has the skill, style and punch to put an end to Sheffield-based Facey's four-year grip on the English title and earn himself a British title fight, which West Brom's Marcus Portman – his southpaw stablemate – fights for next Saturday, by the end of 2008. He knows it won't be an easy task to accomplish, however, as this an awkward Ingle-trained fighter who has taken the scalps of Birmingham's Matthew Macklin and unbeaten Londoner Gary Woolcombe when the English eleven-stone belt has been on the line. The First Team-promoted fighter will certainly have to put in a career-best showing to procure the strap. Back to this fight, and the Sunderland scrapper came to the Midlands with solid credentials. He'd pushed bigger former British Masters boss Prince Arron twice and scored wins over unbeaten Paddy Pollock, Thomas Mazurkiewicz and former Midland Area and British Masters champion Matt Scriven in the last year. Marshall, who had Shaun Farmer in his corner, was beginning to find his feet in the paid ranks. The aggressive, front foot Wearsider had also given former Commonwealth title challenger Craig Dickson hell, breaking his nose, and drew with touted Bolton warmonger Alex Matvienko, though lost the return fairly convincingly in September. While a lot his losses had come when given short notice jobs, the tall (6'1), lean light-middleweight had eight weeks preparation time for this title fight and manager Conroy expected his fighter to end the undefeated run of the ABA quarter-finalist. He tried, looking good when he put his punches together, but in the end he didn't have the keys to unlock the door and end the Shifnal-based plumbers unblemished record, now standing at ten fights since he dumped the vest and headguard in 2005. Flat-footed Lloyd (10st 13lbs) targeted Marshall's long body in the early stages of the first, closing the distance and digging left and right hooks to his abdomen before bringing up a hook the head. Marshall spent most of the opener on the back foot, pawing out the jab. The second saw a tighter, more compact Martin (chin down, hands high). Though he was forced onto the back foot for the majority of the first two minutes by lefts to the body and rights to the head, Marshall stormed back in the last minute and a left hook made the local retreat. After being warned by Sean Messer to clean things up, Marshall, with the success he earned at the end of the last round still fresh in his memory, took the fight to his opponent – tagging him with fast-handed left-rights that Lloyd dismissed with a shake of the head. However, Martin finished the round – incidentally, the only session I had him winning – with blood in both nostrils after shipping several stinging leads in the last 30 seconds. Chants of ‘Lloydy, Lloydy' rang round the theatre during the fourth, spurring the 32-year-old to do some of his best work. Mark, although shorter by six inches, found the range with his jab, mixed his punches and a body assault forced the challenger to employ a cross-arm defence around his midriff. The Errol Johnson-trained former British Masters champion doubled his jab, moved his head and cut the 24-year-old on the left eyebrow, which Mr Messer inspected between rounds, in the fifth. It was noticeable that the Sunderland boxer – so often forced to use every inch of the small ring – was beginning to breathe hard. Marshall (10st 13lbs 2oz) started to ship more and more flush punches in the sixth as Mark (sensing his opponent's tiredness) marched forward, pumped out his arms and found the target with double jabs and follow-up rights. The seventh session followed in the same vein. The eighth saw a deathly-tired 23-fight (eight wins, three draws) Marshall hold on when he could. In between the mauling, however, Lloyd doubled and even trebled his jab and ended the round firing both hands at an opponent who was trapped on the ropes for long periods. Then came the retirement, accepted by Mr Messer. Though Marshall wanted to come out of the ninth, his trainer made an excellent, compassionate decision to call a halt to a fight his man wasn't going to win. I had the reigning International Masters champion, who had to get off the floor to take this title against solid-punching, iron-chinned Ukrainian Vladimir Borovski in September, up 79-73 at the time of the ending, by the way. Now 10-0 (2), Lloyd will have to forego normal Christmas activities to make sure he is in career-best shape to take on octopus-like Facey for the English light-middleweight title in the New Year. Another Telford prospect, light-welterweight Tristan Davies, lost his unbeaten record and saw his title bid end in defeat when referee Messer called halt to his vacant British Masters title fight with Blackburn's Graeme (Dezzi) Higginson in the fifth on this well-attended First Team (Paul Rowson and Errol Johnson) bill. Higginson, who came in for Sheffield-based Kosovan Tony Montana on the morning of the ten-rounder in the Shropshire town made famous by Richie Woodhall, won the vacant belt when Davies was stopped due to nasty cuts on both eyes after rising from a knockdown. The partisan crowd showed their displeasure with the stoppage, though confusion reigned as the audience, until the announcement at least, thought Mr Messer (referee all night) had stopped the 29-year-old former Midland Area lightweight champion due to the knockdown. I had Tristan comfortably ahead by a score of 40-35 at the time of the cut stoppage defeat, incidentally. He'd decked the Lancashire puncher with a cracking right in the third and his cleaner work had meant his nose was always in front. The former international amateur with Donnington Ex-Servicemen's ABC, who had compiled a perfect 11-fight record that saw him drop only four of 64 scheduled rounds in his three-year professional career, was devastated. He hoped a win here would set him on the way to a British title fight in 2008. That will be on the backburner for while. Graeme lost four of his first five (one draw) professional outings, but has won five of his last seven and has been victorious in back-to-back fights in the last three weeks. Though the manner of this title victory may have been a tad fortuitous, Higginson has paid his dues with fights all over the United Kingdom, often at the last minute. Although Higginson (9st 13lbs) was dangerous with his head on the inside during the first two sessions, the Errol Johnson-trained stylist jabbed his way in, stiffened the Blackburn man's legs with rights and the looked the more measured and calculated fighter. Then, halfway through the third, Graeme found himself staring up at the lights via a cracking right that saw him land with a thud on his shoulder blades. He got up quickly, but dropped to one knee to take the rest of the eight and looked shakey on the resumption. Davies (9st 13lbs) tried desperately to finish him off but a lot of the follow-up punches were wild and he ended up finishing the three minutes nicked over the left eye – a slicing wound that would end up costing him the fight and his unblemished record. After a wild and scrappy first 90 seconds, with Higginson boxing mainly on the front foot, Mr Messer took Davies to the corner during the fourth so the doctor could inspect the cut – which had progressively got worse. The doctor let it continue, and Tristan tore straight back into his opponent. Higginson, 5-6-1 (2), was rocked again early in the fifth, but a right hand against the run-of-play caught a back-peddling Davies off balance – dumping him on the floor above me. Tristan was up at two, but after a long look at the cuts around his eyes, Mr Messer decided to waive the cracking scrap off at 1-41. Shrewsbury-born Davies was devastated at losing for the first time after 11 wins (all points). He is aiming for a rematch with the new Masters champion early next year. Shaun ‘Slasher' Walton (9st 6lbs), another popular local performer, tasted defeat for the first time in his hometown as Plymouth's John Vanemmenis (9st 9lbs) outscored the former ABA semi-finallist by a score of 58-57 after a good six-twos at lightweight. I had 32-year-old Walton the winner by the same margin, but there were no complaints. The durable Telford boxer won the first two rounds with his long jab at range, making his four-inch height advantage count and switching attacks from head to the body – hurting the Devonshire scrapper several times in the opening four minutes. But the 33-fight ticket-seller stood in range too much in the next three sessions and that suited Vanemmenis, who won for the first time after a stoppage loss on his debut. He got the better of the toe-to-toe exchanges and although I didn't think he won, he certainly finished the stronger.

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