Leather victorious in ‘shock and awe’ bout
WEARSIDE and Teesside went to war on Tyneside on Saturday night as Josh Leather’s greater discipline overcame a second-round knockdown by Glenn Foot to claim the IBF European super-lightweight belt after a brutal 12-round contest.
If the earlier victory by Tommy Ward had all been about boxing skills, the fight that followed it was an unadulterated brawl.
If Frank Warren brought big-time boxing back to the North East to showcase what the two Liams – Smith and Williams – could do, it was Foot’s right hand, which surely will have left the biggest impact.
The night’s only derby left the main event with a huge amount to live up to, putting on a show of brute force and outstanding courage.
This was nearly the second fight in a matter of days between the pair after the trash talking in the pre-fight Press conference came close to spilling over.
Both men snarled in their opponent’s daces at the end of rounds.
If their mutual disrespect added extra power to Foot’s explosive punch, it only reinforced the steel in the Teessider’s resolve.
Maybe Guisborough super-lightweight Leather should have known there was trouble brewing when he saw Foot’s grinning response to a punch he took in the second round.
Within seconds he launched a shock-and-awe retaliation, unloading a big bomb of a right hand which had the crowd gasping as Leather tumbled towards his own corner.
You would have got long odds at that stage on the fight lasting until the end of the second round, never mind the 12th, but by the time Steve Gray had counted to eight, he was up and ready for more.
He did not just cling on for survival, either, giving as good as he got and sometimes better in the next couple of rounds.
If boxing comes easily to Sunderland’s Foot, discipline does not always.
He was deducted a point in the sixth round after being told off for a third time for punching after the referee had told the fighters to break.
In the next he was spoken to for a low blow, and in the ninth he was warned about using his elbow.
Before it was over, Foot was docked another point, on this occasion after he lost his gum shield for the second time at a rather opportune moment. Leather had the better of the eighth, only for each man to catch the other flush on the head twice in a brutal ninth round. This time neither man was going down.
The second of those bombs from Foot was another right which had those in the seats gasping, but Leather’s legs absolutely solid.
Whenever it looked like one man might have the upper hand, he just got a big hand back in retaliation.
Meanwhile, Nathan Gorman claimed the vacant WBC international silver heavyweight belt with a fifth-round stoppage of Mohammed Soltby.
Ricky Hatton fighter Mark Heffron stopped the gutsy Lewis Taylor, who got up off his haunches twice to take the contest into a seventh round, but could not manage it three times.