ZAK WITH A BANG
Body shots along with a super tough semi-final prove Mcgoldrick’s undoing, writes Andy Whittle
THE LATEST, truncated version of Ultimate Boxxer – called just Boxxer this time and staged in the supermiddleweight class – went ahead minus its usual quarter-final stage at the BT studios in Stratford. It saw Fulham’s
Zak Chelli, the pre-tournament favourite, bagging the Golden Robe and the winner’s cheque with a second round stoppage victory over heavily tattooed and already tired Barrow puncher Mike Mcgoldrick. Referee Bob Williams mercifully called a halt at 1-31 of the second round with the man from Cumbria having been dropped twice in quick succession by punishing rights to the body.
35-year-old Mcgoldrick had been down once in the opener, a crashing right to the head hard on the heels of a short right downstairs seeing him fall to one knee in centre ring. He was up, nose bloodied, as Mr Williams reached a count of four but the omens didn’t look good.
Prior to that initial knockdown Chelli, sensing just how much Mcgoldrick’s punishing semi-final win had taken out of him had been quite relentless but, breakthrough made, he bided his time and worked from a distance in the next before bringing down the curtain with those two body shot knockdowns. The second came with the very first shot thrown after action recommenced following the first.
Mike had secured his place in the final, picking up a nick below the left eye in the process, with a unanimous and hardfought victory over unbeaten former top class amateur Harry Woods of Liverpool in a cracking bout fought at a rare old pace with not too much consideration given to leaving something in the tank for the final.
Mcgoldrick, on the front foot and just that bit busier had edged ahead early but with precious little daylight between them, Harry came on strongly in the second half of round two to narrow the deficit before a nip and tuck toe-to-toe slugfest in the last.
Judges Kieran Mccann, Terry O’connor and Bob Williams scored 29-28, 29-28 and 30-27 respectively while Lee Every refereed.
Chelli meanwhile, had a far easier semi-final, taking all three rounds on the cards of judges Every, O’connor and
Williams, against Weston-super-mare based Bulgarian Vladimir Georgiev who had stepped in at the 11th hour after Zak’s intended opponent Bury’s unbeaten Ben Ridings had been ruled out after the regulatory round of Covid testing.
Comfortable behind a snappy jab and cruising towards a shut-out victory against an opponent more middle than super-middle, Chelli went in search of the stoppage towards the finish. It didn’t come and had Mcgoldrick had a less punishing semi then Zak might just have had cause to regret not just keeping doing what he was doing and banking an easy victory.
A pair of six-round bouts comprised the evening’s support, a cruiserweight affair which ran its full course and a welterweight match over almost before it had begun. Unbeaten Shepherd’s Bush operator
Mikael Lawal, having his first outing since being crowned cruiserweight Ultimate Boxxer at Altrincham 16 months previously, secured a 60-54 victory over Willesden’s gritty Ossie Jervier in what would have been a good rust shedding exercise. Keeping a tight defence Ossie was happy to slip in the odd counter by way of reply when the opportunity arose and he ventured a little more onto the front foot in the later rounds. Nigerian born Lawal though, jabbing from the outset and looking to cut off the ring from an early stage scored with several body-head combinations and proved a worthy winner for referee Mccann.
The six between hard hitting London based Albanian Florian Marku and Sheffield’s comebacking Muma
Mweemba lasted just 101 seconds and in that short space of time the Yorkshireman was counted twice. Hugely popular Marku, now recovered from a hand injury, wasted no time stamping his authority on proceedings, a left to the temple with a little over a minute having elapsed sending Mweemba crashing and a body shot helping him on his way. Mweemba was up at a count of eight but Marku was already sensing the chance of an early night and, letting his hands go, over Muma went again, this time from a right. Again he rose but defeat was just seconds away, referee Mccann intervening after the Sheffield man was sent sliding down the corner post to the seat of his shorts by a fine left hook.
THE VERDICT Still only 22 and with three 10-rounders already banked the next couple of years should prove very interesting for Chelli.