RINGSIDE REPORT
Yarde gets the job done but Reeves is a long way from Kovalev
Boxing returns to the Royal Albert Hall with Dubois, Yarde, Williams and more
IF promising lightheavyweight Anthony Yarde
had grown frustrated with his recent inactivity he made a reasonable statement in stopping Travis Reeves in the fifth of a scheduled 10-rounder to retain his WBO Inter-continental title on an impressively grand occasion at the iconic Royal Albert Hall.
Suggestions Yarde should soon challenge WBO champion Sergey Kovalev remain premature, but he demonstrated subtle signs of improvement, and did so while not only topping the bill – having in December missed out with little notice when he had been scheduled to fight in Los Angeles on the undercard of Deontay Wilder-tyson Fury – but doing so beyond BT Sport and the UK on ESPN+.
For all his raw potential, the Hackney 27-year-old has occasionally been onepaced, but he showed greater ability to vary his tempo as early as the opening round, when he exchanged left hands with Reeves then landed a hurtful combination to build a lead.
Yarde has also previously been guilty of head-hunting and following his opponents around the ring with little thought. But if his movement needs to continue improving, there was an increased variety to his punches in the second when, after landing left and right hooks, he began to target the 38-year-old Reeves’ body. In the fourth a typically powerful right hand hurt his Baltimore opponent, and in the fifth a big left again had Reeves struggling. Further lefts and rights made referee Marcus Mcdonnell rescue him after 48 seconds, which initially appeared premature. That Reeves’ vulnerability then became more obvious beyond justified his judgement.
The same unfortunately did not apply to Liam Williams’ challenger Joe Mullender of Brentwood, when the champion made the first defence of his British middleweight title.
Mullender was aggressive but Church Village’s Williams simply too classy, particularly with that finest of jabs. He is not a natural middleweight but it did not show when he hurt Mullender with an uppercut in the second (of 12) and then proceeded to land powerful lefts and rights, forcing the first, heavy knockdown.
The challenger returned to his feet
but was so clearly defenceless referee Bob Williams or his corner should have rescued him. Instead, beyond dazed – bringing to mind that horrific 2010 stoppage suffered by Enzo Maccarinelli against Alexander Frenkel – he was static until Williams launched another big right that sent him to the canvas and left him requiring oxygen after 1-09. As clinical a stoppage was Daniel
Dubois’ of Razvan Cojanu. That Cojanu was the bigger of the two perhaps contributed to his intent, but Greenwich’s Dubois remained composed, even in the knowledge his rival Nathan Gorman was watching and while taking a right hand towards the opening round’s conclusion.
Cojanu’s ambition, as so often applies to an aggressive fighter against a puncher, ultimately undermined him in the second of their 10-rounder. Following further exchanges, Dubois backed him into a corner, where after going to the body he landed a left then a right that dropped the Voinesti, Romania man so heavily that after 2-48 his admirable attempts to continue barely registered with Steve Gray, who routinely counted him out.
As is so often the case, the evening’s finest fight was for the British title; between defending welterweight champion Johnny Garton and Chris
Jenkins of Swansea, whose convincing performance brought him his finest night as a professional.
Landing with the jab and the occasional overhand right brought him early success, and after more testing third and fourth rounds in which Peckham’s heavier-handed Garton threatened to discourage him, he rediscovered his composure to ease to so convincing a victory Garton was twice fortunate to survive.
In the ninth Jenkins landed so many unanswered, strong right hands that
BN gave him the round 10-8. The 12th and last was similarly punishing for the tiring Garton, who regardless resiliently remained on his feet until the final bell, after which referee Ian John-lewis oversaw Jenkins’ crowning as champion via scores of 119-109, 116-112 and 117-112, respectively from Williams, Mcdonnell and Gray.
Slough’s Hamzah Sheeraz required only 70 seconds of a six-rounder to stop
Rod Douglas Jnr. A right hand meant the first knockdown came almost instantly, and it was that from which Douglas Jnr, of Bow, never recovered; he then took a knee under assault to the body before a further left again sent him to the canvas. When he again returned to his feet, referee Lee Every rightly intervened.
Every had overseen Hainault’s James
Branch survive cuts by both eyes to score him the 39-37 victor in a scrappy four-round affair against Kieran Pitman of Nuneaton; he also awarded the sharp Harvey Horn victory when rescuing Patrik Bartos of Kladno, Czech Republic after only 2-03 of a scheduled four when, as Chigwell’s Horn hurt him to the body, Bartos turned his back, went down under a left, and remained hurt when returning to his feet.
Denzel Bentley of Battersea needed only 1-42 of the second to expose Angolan Julio Cesar’s reckless armpunching, putting him down in the second with a right and then forcing the conclusion with further hurtful rights until Mccann’s intervention.
Bexley’s talented Jake Pettitt adjusted to box with greater patience when winning 40-36 on the same official’s scorecard across his four rounds against
Stefan Slavchev of Bulgaria. Mccann also oversaw the competitive fight between Lucien Reid (West Ham) and Birmingham’s Indi Sangha, which became a technical draw 1-20 into the third (of six) when the ringside doctor examined the significant cut by Reid’s right eye and ruled he could not continue.
THE VERDICT This venue is made for boxing.