FRIENDS REUNITED
Heffron returns with Joe Gallagher in his corner, writes Andy Whittle
OLDHAM OCTOBER 16 ★★★★★ WHOLE SHOW ★★★★★ ATMOSPHERE
UP AT super-middleweight and back with Joe Gallagher for the first time in a decade, local favourite Mark Heffron shone on this Frank Duffin promotion at the Leisure Centre, needing just a little over two rounds of a scheduled six to see off Amsterdam-based Ugandan southpaw
Farouk Daku.
With two rounds banked and seemingly having shaken Daku late in the second, Mark duly finished the job, a punishing right to the body and a followup hook sending the visitor sprawling. After just 35 seconds and with the African flat out on his back, referee Mark Lyson waved it off without taking up a count.
There was an early night too for Barnsley’s unbeaten birthday boy
Callum Simpson who, intent behind every punch he threw, handed Lydney’s
Lewis van Poetsch a rare stoppage defeat. Bury referee John Latham rightly intervening to halt the one way fare with 88 seconds of the third and penultimate session remaining. Before the finish, the onslaught had re-opened a recent wound above “Poochi’s” eye and the much heavier Lydney man would doubtless have been looking at a 28-day suspension, anyway.
Up at cruiserweight “Turkish Tyson” Billy Deniz, working well behind the jab and scoring increasingly with combinations upstairs, took all four rounds against tattooed Middleton southpaw Darryl Sharp, while Doncaster debutant Hughie Wilson,
trained up in York by Henry Wharton, was another 40-36 winner. He got the better of Hyde’s Dale Arrowsmith
who replied with enough to keep it interesting.
Liverpool’s Mark Lyson was third man in both bouts while Mr Latham refereed the remaining two contests. The first was won 60-54 by Bolton’s Khaleel Majid who had a bit too much of everything for Brierley Hill‘s MJ Hall. The second resulted in yet another predictable whitewash, as Ripon’s Rob Magill won 40-36 over Liverpool based Genadij Krajevskij who offered little.
THE VERDICT Impressive stuff indeed from Heffron who, still only 29, has plenty to offer.