Nuumembe loses to Watson in bloody battle by Terry Dooley Dec 13th 2007

Ali Nuumbembe lost his Commonwealth welterweight title to Craig Watson after nine exceptionally bloody rounds in Wigan on Saturday night. The bumper bill was part of the Sky PPV broadcast of the Floyd Mayweather-Ricky Hatton fight. Despite the withdrawal of Jamie Moore from the bill, after Zaurbeck Bayzangurov pulled out of their European title fight, promoters Frank Maloney and Steve Wood managed to shore up the night by putting on a further two title fights. Unfortunately the nature of the bill was such that it overran and there were often lulls between fights, this meant that the atmosphere was subdued as fans came in and out of the bar to support specific fighters rather than taking in the bill as an whole. The first fighter out was VIP's Gary Sykes, who beat Carl Allen on points after 6 x 3-minute rounds. Sykes, 9st 8lb, could never quite produce any form in this fight despite putting a fair few punches out against his opponent. Allen, 9st 13lb, came in at short notice and did just enough to negate Skyes' attacks. Gary has failed to truly shine in any the fights this writer has seen him involved in, and this one was no exception. Despite trying to find the body on the inside Sykes was often too static to open a gap for himself and gave Allen no real scares in the fight. In the final two rounds Sykes was flurrying onto the gloves of Allen, who stated calm throughout these flurries, even getting the odd sneak right hand through the open guard of Sykes.  Earlier, these sneaky rights from Allen had been enough to win the 2nd round on my card, Sykes simply did not putting quite enough on Carl until the final round, by which time it was nowhere near enough for him to force a stoppage and he won 60-54 on the scorecard of referee Phil Edwards. BBN had it 59-55. Next up came Mark Moran who showed Sykes how to do it as he stopped his opponent, Iordan Vasilev, with a well-placed body shot after only 3 rounds of a scheduled 6-rounder. Moran, 8st 11lb, came out behind a high guard and promptly began working the body. Iordan, 8st 13lb, simply had no reply as he was repeatedly caught clean. A feint from Moran set up a left hook to the head late in the round. Mark again used his feints well in the 2nd round. A right hook to the body came in off the jab as Moran used his southpaw style to full effect. Unlike Sykes, Moran stayed within range of his opponent before moving forward behind his feints and clattering the body. This paid dividends in the 3rd, as Moran opened the round with a sharp left uppercut to the body. With his bleached blonde hair and non-committal attitude, Iordan was looking, and fighting, like a Mormon Eminem tribute artist.  Moran made the fake Slim Shady sit down with a right hook, switching his attack from the body to the head with full effect.  Iordan rose but was promptly hit with a left hook to the body and an uppercut, from the same side, to the head. Moran then switched his attack once again; he stepped around his opponent before sinking in a vicious left hook to the body.  It was a nice, deliberated, shot right on the bell and ended the fight. Iordan beat the count but it was all over at 3:00 of the 3rd, Steve Grey had seen enough and stopped the fight after letting Iordan regain his footing. Next up was the 1st title fight, as Jason Booth outfought and out-thought Matthew Edmonds before stopping his younger foe at 2:57 of the 9th round to win the vacant Commonwealth bantamweight title. Booth, 8st 4lb 14oz, signalled his intent in the early rounds by boxing behind a stiff jab. His right hand to the body began to work early on as the man from Nottingham showed his greater experience. Edmonds, 8st 5lb 6oz, was not in the fight over the early going. In falling behind so readily and so early, he was left trying to recoup as the fight wore-on. This was ideal for Booth, who showed great experience and variety of punch throughout the bout. By the 5th, Booth was doubling-up his 1-2 to the body. By now, though, Edmonds was rolling with the shots a little bit more. He also got his own right hand to the body into the fight. However Booth was too smooth and too experienced for the fighter in front of him. Edmonds, on my card, finally got a round into his ledger in the 7th after standing his ground in the best round of the fight so far. Booth started with left and right uppercuts before wounding Edmonds a little with a big right hook to the body.  Booth once again tried his hands with the uppercuts only for Edmonds, by now learning his lessons, to force Booth back with a series of body shots. Both traded right hands and Edmonds was coming into range more freely, but it was clear the earlier work was going to take its toll on him. This proved to be true as Edmonds took his lumps in rounds 7 and 9. Booth now had the bit between his teeth and was chomping away at Edmonds with little bursts of shots. A sequence of blows – right hook, left hook, and a right uppercut, followed by a right hook to the body – left Edmonds sagging a little and looking at referee Marcus McDonnell.  To his credit, Matthew dug his toes into the canvas and fired back, only to take a pair of hooks, left and right. A follow-up couplet caused Edmonds to again sag, and this time he turned away from the action, leaving the referee with no choice but to end the fight. It may sound clichéd, but it was real man against boy stuff. It will be a hard loss for Edmonds, but he can learn from it, and his opponent, before chancing his arm again at the title level. Next up there was a delay before another title fight. This one again ended in the ninth, as Ali Nuumbembe lost his welterweight Commonwealth title to local rival Craig Watson. Nuumbembe, 10st 6lb 5oz, suffered a horrific cut to his left eye after a clash of heads in round 3. Referee Dave Paris allowed Ali to come out for a number of rounds before halting the bout early into the 9th. Watson, 10st 6lb 5oz, had been responsible for causing the cut as he bored in with his head a little at times. Ali was given a lot of time to change the fight but in truth Watson made the most of his advantage. He would make the action messy, then pop-off with arm shots, as Ali battled with his blood flow. Watson loaded-up early in the 1st round before then throwing point-scoring blows. Nuumbembe won the round with his better punching, a brace of right hands being the strongest shots thrown in the round. By the 2nd, the action was mostly messy, with Nuumbembe causing himself problems by leaning forwards somewhat. This presented Watson the opportunity to land uppercuts and slashing hooks from the southpaw stance. Watson won the 2nd without showing a lot of power but the fight was really over bar the shouting in the 3rd when Watson, as he often did, missed with a shot then came in with his head.  Both were hurt by the clash but it was Nuumbembe who came out of it with the real problem – a deep cut spilling blood freely down his face. Having to forfeit the round, to protect the cut, also left Ali down on the card of BBN. Watson could see his opponent had a bad cut and fought the right tactics from this point on. Craig would land little shots thrown from the elbow, he would also knock the protective smears of grease off Ali's eye early in the rounds then ambush the Glossop-based Namibian as he dabbed at the troublesome injury. Under Commonwealth rules, Ali had to win the fight outright or face a TKO loss and, in fairness, he was given the time to do this by the referee. By the end of the 5th round, Nuumbembe was behind on points yet he did start to come into the fight a little. Watson's jab was the dominant factor; it was keeping the blood flowing as well as making Ali miss with his own shots. Nuumbembe managed to win the 6th round, landing more jabs and right hands on Watson, and it even looked like he may have been in a position to benefit from brave refereeing by Paris.  Ali went for the KO in round 7, sensing he was running out his string with the third man in the ring, only to see a retreating Watson dib-dab away at him.  Craig seemed to decide early that he would wait for the cut to stop the fight; he picked away with pattering shots as well as giving Nuumbembe plenty of movement. Instead of forcing the stoppage, he was waiting for the fight to end this way, hoping to take the title on the basis of a cut opened by his head. In that sense, it was a double use of the head from Watson - it was a smart move. This strategy paid off when fight was halted after 0:24 of the 9th. Given the severity of the cut suffered by Ali, it could be said that Paris gave him a long state of grace before stopping the bout. On the other hand, the cut was bad right from the get-go; Paris had allowed the fight to continue before ending the fight just as Nuumbembe was getting some cohesion into his work.  The final shots of the fight, a double jab and right hand to the body, had come from Nuumbembe and the fighter will feel that, if the referee wanted to protect him, the fight should have been stopped around the 4th, or not at all. Certainly not after he had fought his way back into the bout. At the time of the stoppage BBN had it 5-3 in rounds for Watson. In the next bout VIP fighter Jack Arnfield capped a busy few months as he eased to a win over Ben Hudson. Arnfield has fought 3 times since October. However in this fight he was hampered by the extreme shortness of his opponent, who also knew how to tuck up and make his target area even smaller.  Arnfield, 11st 2lb, pelted Hudson, 11st 8lb, with nice combinations throughout the 4-rounder before running out a 40-36 winner on referee Steve Grey's scorecard. BBN had it by the same margin.  Arnfield is a nice rangy fighter; he did some good stuff boxing off the jab, but such was the small target area on offer, and the toughness of Hudson, that Jack was fighting a losing battle in terms of looking really good. Hudson did not land any meaningful shots until getting in a left hook in the final round. He seemed content to take the odd shot from Arnfield then played to the crowd. Recent debates on journeymen has seen Peter Buckley take criticism for his defensiveness but at least Buckley takes what he does seriously, Hudson, on this showing, can be bracketed among the more zany journeymen operating in the game today. In the next bout, Chris Edwards won the inaugural British super-flyweight title by edging out youngster Jamie McDonnell over 12-rounds. Jamie, 8st 2lb, is a young-looking guy and was accompanied to the ring by an even younger looking ringcard girl holding a British flag. Together they looked like a couple of schoolkids going to the end-of-term disco. Edwards, 8st 2lb, must have formed the same prejudices about McDonnell's age and angelic features as many of us at ringside but, over the first 3 rounds at least, Jamie produced a performance beyond his years as he out-boxed Edwards with sharper shots. Edwards tried to busy himself up in the 3rd round, only to be outpunched a little by the man in front of him.  However, Edwards staved off the scoring deficit in the middle rounds as his experience brought him into the fight. Edwards was the man working the body more and this strategy was paying off as the fight wore-on. Despite this turn in fortunes, McDonnell was still able to push Edwards back in round 7 before making the mistake of walking onto a right hook to the head. Edwards showed his greater experience and mettle in taking the final 3 rounds on my card. The tough man, Edwards, in front of him was pushing Jamie hard; too many right hands were being pushed through his guard for my liking. There was a sense of urgency from Jamie in the 11th. Obviously he is adroit enough to sense when a fight is slipping away from him, as he responded by pinging Edwards with a left uppercut and right-hand salvo.  Both then went for it in round 12 and both landed clean blows. Jamie had the variety but it was Edwards landing the harder looking shots on the inside.  After 12 exhausting rounds, there was very little between them - nothing, in fact, on my card, as I turned-up a 114-114 score.  No one likes to see an inaugural title left sitting on the shelf, but on the other hand, neither man truly deserved to lose and the official cards evidenced this as a split decision - 116-113 Edwards, 116-113 McDonnell and 115-114 Edwards – came in. The final title match-up featured Gary Woolcombe and Marcus Portman, fighting for the British light-middleweight title vacated by Jamie Moore. Woolcombe, 10st 12lb, was the better man throughout a messy bout. A clash of heads in the 1st left Portman, 10st 12lb, with a nick over his right eye. It was the kind of clash one often sees in bouts involving right-handers, Woolcombe, and left-handers, Portman, and it set the scene for a bout that never truly caught fire. Woolcombe kept his nose above water points-wise by landing whenever there was a lull in the mauling. By the 4th the fight, if not the arena - which was very cold - heated up a little as Portman landed two right hooks and seemed to have Gary going a little bit. This proved a brief respite as the clinching returned in round 5. With it returned Woolcombe's form as he landed a right to the body followed by a left hook to the head. The rights and lefts became more frequent as Woolcombe took the next two rounds.  In round 8, Portman began to use his jab a bit more, although another clash of heads worsened his cut. Both traded along the ropes in this round. Portman, perhaps nearing the end of his tether, won the round but the fighter was retired between rounds by a compassionate corner. Other Results: Alex Matvienko W4 Jamie Ambler Brian Rose Wrsf4 Shaun Farmer

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