BRAVO, BAVVO!
European title joy for Kirstie
KIRSTIE BAVINGTON of Pensnett was too much for Budapest’s Timea Belik at The Hangar, securing the vacant European welterweight title with a one-sided victory.
There might not have been much between the pair early on but from the top of the third it was pretty much one-way stuff, with Timea relegated to the back foot and growing increasingly disconsolate.
The Spanish referee, maybe a little overly officious, admonished PE teacher Bavvo on a couple of occasions but it mattered not, Kirstie proved relentless in her pursuit of victory and her increasing dominance ultimately saw her home, scores of 100-90, 99-92 and 99-91 confirming what everyone already knew.
“I’m buzzing,” she said afterwards. “This is for all the people who said you can’t do anything with your life. I’m here now as European Champion... I was trying my best to stop Belik but fair play she stood with me and made it a helluva fight.”
Conah Walker had his first outing since challenging for the English welterweight title in February and he took all six rounds against Bulgarian Iliyan Markov on the scorecard of third man Shaun Messer.
Bossing throughout, Walker softened the visitor up with a number of shots downstairs before snapping his head with a great right mid-way through the third.
A fourth paid victory came the way of Cannock southpaw Ollie Cooper who in another bout overseen by Mr Messer used his natural height and reach advantages to good effect to secure a 40-36 win over Lydney’s Lewis van Poetsch. The same official scored two bouts a little closer at 39-37. Popular local Jermaine Osbourne-edwards shrugged off a flash late knockdown from a glancing right to inflict a 19th paid defeat on another Bulgarian Petar Aleksandrov while Wednesfield’s Alex Round bested Manchester’s still winless Josh Cook with the visitor a good deal more competitive in the second half.
Exeter welter Shannon Willey, scoring increasingly regularly to the body, proved too much for Brierley Hill’s MJ Hall whose early ambition dwindled as the fight went on. Mr Messer scored 40-37.