Stannard secures win on professional debut
LOUGHBOROUGH College boxer Stanley Stannard is celebrating after he clamed victory on his professional debut.
The super-welterweight put aside some prefight nerves to put on a show for his army of fans over the tough Londoner Jordan Grannum at Nottingham’s Britannia Hotel on the Carl Greaves Promotions ‘Notts Boyz’ show on Saturday night.
The Londoner had never been stopped in the pro-ranks and referee Kevin Parker awarded the contest 40-36 in favour of the debutant Stannard.
Despite his inexperience Stannard dominated the contest from the first bell with some great footwork and some hurtful punches, especially to the body of his durable opponent during an exciting first round.
During the second round the southpaw really grew into the contest as he continued to dominate Grannum. Stannard even found the opportunity to wow his supporters with an ‘Ali Shuffle’, much to their delight.
The third round was fought at a faster pace with Stannard getting caught a couple of times, but he shrugged these lapses off to land some heavy blows to which clearly hurt Grannum. Despite the Londoner claiming otherwise, which seemed to spur Stannard on.
The final round was much of the same, as Stannard cruised to victory whilst calmly going about his work and not getting distracted by Grannum.
He landed the better shots and was content to get rounds in the bank against one of the toughest fighters on the British circuit.
After the fight Stannard said: “It’s a lot different in the pro-game, it’s a lot slower pace and you have to pick your shots. But I really enjoyed it and what a turnout for my debut. I couldn’t have asked for more. I’d like to thank my family, all my sponsors plus Carl Greaves and the team. I couldn’t do it without them.”
Carl Greaves said he was delighted with the display: ““That was a hard debut, I struggled to get Stan matched for tonight. People forget that Jordan Grannum is a former ABA champion. I believe in Stanley one hundred percent. He boxed clever and boxed smart.”