BOMBER ON TARGET
Vaughan shines and Henry is an Area champion too, writes Andy Whittle from ringside
A QUICK canvassing of opinion among regulars at The Eastside Rooms prior to the clash for the vacant Midlands Area welterweight title between unbeaten pair Ben Vaughan and Coseley’s Liam Gould revealed a majority who felt Northampton southpaw Vaughan might emerge with the spoils. However, nobody could have anticipated that with just one early victory from 18 previous outings, Vaughan would triumph in the fashion he did – destroying Gould inside a round.
Having scored with a couple of initial range-finders, ‘The Bomber’ edged forward, slamming home a big right hook hot on the heels of a combination which stunned Liam before another heavy right sent him over, bashing the back of his head on the canvas as he fell. Though he was up at eight, he was clearly still groggy and, with 11 seconds of the session remaining, referee Chris Dean quite rightly decided he’d seen enough.
Different fortunes befell another Northampton operator, Michael Stephenson, who, at the conclusion of a 10-rounder overseen by the same Solihull official, lost out narrowly 96-94 to Hereford’s tough and tremendously fit Gyvon Henry – or ‘Cliff’, as he’s more familiarly known. It was a result that saw Michael relieved of his Midlands Area light-heavyweight title by the Hereford puncher.
The difference, as it turned out, proved to be the closing rounds when Henry, with only four previous paid outings in the bank and having seemingly been shaken by a short right in the dying embers of the fifth, ventured increasingly on to the front foot.
My notes in the eighth round read “Henry outworking Stephenson by quite a margin now”, and there was to be no let-up in the final stages, which saw Stephenson warned to watch his head on a couple of occasions.
The undercard had taken something of a hit in the run-up to the event, but three non-title contests remained come fight night in which a trio of relative newcomers, all of them unbeaten, were afforded the opportunity to further their fistic education.
Stourbridge light-heavyweight Ben Collins had debuted here on a pre-christmas event, easing past Liverpool’s Genadij Krajevskij, and he banked victory number two here by seeing off 37-year-old Slovakian Pavol Garaj who, not for the first time, came off second-best in the West Midlands.
Scores on the doors at the conclusion of another four overseen by undercard referee Ryan Churchill read 39-37 in Ben’s favour.
The visitor took the closing round thanks to a couple of eye-catching rights, having been outworked by the promising 19-year-old in the earlier, sometimes high-tempo rounds.
Brummie Nico Ogbeide had had to settle for a share of the spoils when he went in with Brierley Hill journeyman MJ Hall at this same venue just a few days before Christmas but, in against admittedly limited opposition in Lithuanian veteran Simas Volosinas (who like Naeem Ali, was punching for pay for the 126th time), he returned to winning ways, easing to a 40-36 triumph.
Volosinas, still only 33 even though he seems to have been around forever, made a slightly better fist of things in the last having landed precious little of note prior to that, but was bested by some distance and he finished with a degree of reddening around the left eye.
Tipton super-lightweight Conor Baker who had secured a couple of victories without surrendering a round outscored aforementioned Blackburn centurion Ali 39-37 over four.
Ali hasn’t had his arm raised for five years now and, despite an improved closing round in which, moving a little more onto the offensive he scored with a couple of decent single rights, he seldom looked liked breaking the habit here.
THE VERDICT Shocking early finish sees Vaughan crowned Area champion.