Cornish made to work hard for points win

INVERNESS heavyweight Gary Cornish last night warmed up for his British title fight with a hardfought points win over Kamil Sokolowski in Paisley.

Cornish, fighting for the first time since joining up with trainer Billy Nelson and management team MTK Scotland at the end of last year, made heavy work of despatching the Plymouth-based Pole – a late stand-in for the Georgian Revaz Karelishvili – for the second time in 11 months.

The six-round fight – third on the Impetus bill at the Lagoon Leisure Centre – went the distance before referee Kenny Pringle scored it in favour of Cornish 59 to 55. The Highlander, whose record now stands at 24-1, is expected to fight again in Glasgow next month before taking on Englishman Sam Sexton for the British heavyweight title some time before June.

This, though, was a tough maiden outing for the 29-year-old with his new camp, being unable to land many combinations against the ever-willing Sokolowski.

Welcomed to the ring by a lone piper playing Flower of Scotland and Scotland the Brave, Cornish was backed by a raucous travelling support who yelled their encouragement throughout the bout but he couldn’t land the knock-out blow the crowd, and his trainer, craved.

Cornish opened encouragingly before the fight become increasingly scrappy, with both men resorting to holding and catching their breath. The Inverness man continued to probe away with his left jab, while Sokolowski looked to gain the advantage with numerous body shots.

It was becoming increasingly attritional with neither man able to land cleanly and Sokolowski was spoken to by the referee on a few occasions for blows to the back of Cornish’s head.

By the fourth round both fighters were swinging and missing, with Cornish unable to land a telling blow and Sokolowski unwilling to fade away.

The final round was predictably scrappy. Cornish had Sokolowski on the ropes but couldn’t land any clean shots. At the end both men embraced with Cornish hoisting a Saltire above his head to celebrate his victory.

“We’ve been working on a few new things so it was just about putting that into practise,” he said. “I thought in the first round I boxed quite well but from the second round it just got scrappier and scrappier. It wasn’t my best performance but it was a win and that’s all that matters to me.”