SHORT & SWEET

Tomlinson stars on a show with just three bouts, writes Andy Whittle

THE FIRST show in the Platinum Suite at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane stadium in four years (there’s another this weekend) was down to just three bouts by start time. Even so, there was still a healthy little crowd on hand to witness a couple of winning debuts and the progress of Sheffield’s former Central Area champion Anthony Tomlinson who, with Ray Doyle now in the corner, is looking at getting back to challenging for titles in the not too distant future.

Tomlinson might have taken a little while to get going against Russian Evgenii Vazem, who mocked his opponent a couple of times when his shots fell short, but he was increasingly in charge and by the sixth and last round was dominant and enjoying himself.

Vazem, who had a point docked in the penultimate session when he lost his gumshield for a fifth time, finished marked beneath the eye and the loser by 60-53.

First of a trio of bouts overseen by Leeds referee Andy Brook was Karl Crowley, a tattooed super-lightweight from Maltby over near the Nottinghamshire border who had a mini army of supporters cheering him on to a 39-37 success over Margate’s Senegalese Tiger Matar Sambou who, outworked early on, saved his best for last. Asked afterwards what it had felt like boxing at the home of his beloved Blades, Unitedite Crowley joked that it couldn’t get any better and that he might as well retire now.

There was a more than decent following urging on Sheffield first-timer Bree Burbeary too, or Bree Wright as she is known locally.

Bree comes highly rated and she certainly lived up to expectations by softening up experienced Hungarian Klaudia Vigh in a one-sided opener and then despatching her just 72 seconds into the next. A combination to the head flooring the visitor right at the start of the session and a sustained spell of pressure on the resumption quite rightly prompting the intervention of Mr Brook.