Mac’s glory bid suffers big KO
GEORDIE Glenn McCrory has been thwarted in his attempt to land his first title as a trainer.
McCrory’s protege Sean McGlinchey has been forced to pull out of his Celtic super-middleweight title fight at Belfast’s Devenish Complex on October 6 after injuring himself in training.
“It is a real sickener,” admitted McCrory, who was due to go out to his Wild Atlantic gym in Culdaff this week to put the finishing touches to the Derry man’s training.
“I have not been back in Newcastle long after we underwent a concentrated training programme. I am so upset for Sean, who has worked so hard.” BRANDON’S Lewis Maddison was involved in the best bout of the day at Brandon Sports Club when he narrowly dropped a split points decision to Tony Taylor of Marden.
Brannan Hudson (Forest Hall) took a unanimousd decision against Longsight’s Horia Kheil as the club show season got under way. TYNESIDER Jamie Humble produced an impressive stoppage success on Sunday’s Showdown at St James’ Park II to head a clean sweep of home fighters.
It took the Fighting Chance featherweight just 155 seconds of the opening round to put visiting Dmitrijs Gutmans on the canvas four times - ending the show in some style after the previous five fights had all gone the distance.
It means, of course, Humble remains unbeaten.
The show opened with debutant welterweight Chad Ellis easing to a comfortable points success against James Gorman.
Four years after his last fight, Darlington’s Chrissy Wood, who is now managed by Tyneside’s Steve Wraith, returned to the ring and claimed his third win from three as a professional boxer.
Wood showed little sign of rust and blew away many cobwebs in a good comeback victory.
Opposing Russ Midgeley, the DBMA-trained fighter took aboard and utilised every ounce of advice afforded him during the four rounds, his close-range body work and combinations proving highly advantageous.
His trainer Peter Shepperson said: “I am over the moon with Chrissy.
“He boxed well and looked very strong, some wicked body a shots and combinations going in. Now it is on to the next one.”
Stockton flyweight Joe Maphosa, who had one eye on appearing at the Metro Arena in November, put in a comfortable performance to outclass tough journeyman Anwar Alfadi over four rounds.
Maphosa used tight footwork and good reach to stay in control of the contest and collect his second win in the paid ranks.
Afterwards trainer Imran Naeem said: “I love this boy and he boxed really well to instructions against an awkward veteran.
“It is not easy to box on a small hall show knowing there is a big night in November in the offing but we did it right.”
The third Fighting Chance fighter on the bill, light heavyweight Kyle Redfearn, remains unbeaten along with Humble and hunting down Area titles. He put on a classy performance to defeat Remigijius Ziausys over six rounds.
Usually an in-your-face, smash-and-grab fighter, Redfearn showed a different side to his abilities to take a points success.
Newcastle’s welterweight Basi Razaq went toe-to-toe with Sheffield’s Dan West to take a six round victory.
He said: “I got the win I wanted against an awkward kid who made me dig deep.
“We put in a lot of hard hours training up and down the country and it paid off.”
Next up for Razaq is a potential Northern Area title fight with local rival Tom Whitfield who, along with his trainer Mal Gates, was ringside watching with vested interest.