THREE-COURSE MEAL

George Storr sees promoter Mcguire serve up a three- ght dinner show A CANCELLED debut and an ambulance trip did their best to hamper the SM Promotions dinner show at the Gilvenbank Hotel, but stalwart MC, Craig Stephen, steadied the ship and ultimately Stevie Mcguire’s three-fight card entertained the sold-out crowd.

Referee Darren Maxwell took charge of all of the night’s action, and the opener saw two undefeated novices face off. Chris Ryder, a South African fighting out of Thurso, took on Wigan-based Greek, Sotiris Papageorgiou.

Every round was close, but Ryder’s superior strength and engine ultimately shaped the bout. An immensely competitive fight, it finished 39-38 to Ryder, and an exhausted Papageorgiou was taken to hospital as a precaution.

Local favourite Connor Law [inset]

appeared next. The Dunfermline man met Portugal’s Yailton Neves

in an all-southpaw bout. Manchester resident Neves was sharp and looked to be heading towards at least a draw, having arguably won the first three. After relying too heavily on single punches in the early exchanges, Law rallied in the fourth and began landing meaningful shots. The Scot worked Neves onto the ropes and piled on the pressure in the sixth, before referee Maxwell stopped the fight, perhaps slightly prematurely, at 1-47 of the final round. Edinburgh’s John Mccallum topped the bill, but could not surpass the gauntlet laid down by a competitive, if brief, undercard. His struggle against Latvia’s Jevgenijs Andrejevs was blighted by repeated rabbit-punching from both parties and very little clean work. Mccallum had a notable advantage in terms of natural size but failed to truly capitalise. He looked frustrated in cruising to a 40-36 points win.

THE VERDICT Compelling openers give way to a forgettable bill-topper.