FINE START

Mick Kane sees Grant best Bishop on his professional debut

DEBUTANT Jordan Grant headlined the Kynoch Boxing-promoted Pugilism at the Plaza show at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, making a fine start to his professional career. The Hamilton boxer faced Rochdale’s

Andy Bishop in a four-rounder in the lightheavyweight division and controlled the fight from start to finish, landing heavy body shots throughout. Every punch thrown seemed to be a power shot and it was clear Grant hoped to get the stoppage on his resume. Alas it wasn’t to be, but it was a comfortable debut none the less, referee-for-the-night Kenny Pringle (Hamilton) scoring 40-36 Grant, to the delight of a large support.

Preceding the main event was another light-heavy four as Houston’s Darren Tarr faced the experienced Lewis van Poetsch from Lydney. Tarr came out on top winning a 39-37 verdict, enjoying a good workout as he moved to 2-0. The following day, van Poetsch stole the show at the Southern Area Awards, where he was named ‘Best Supporting Boxer’ (Full report from those awards next week).

Eric Donovan put on a stylish performance, with a large support having come over from County Kildare not disappointed. The former Irish amateur star comprehensively outboxed Nicaragua’s Jose

Aguilar to win all six rounds at 60-54. The Irishman’s movement and quickfire punches were too much for Aguilar.

The most competitive fight was a six-round featherweight contest between Barrhead’s

Gary Rae and Brett Fidoe. The Evesham man kept pushing forward and found some success on occasion, but Rae had the cleaner work and was a worthy winner by 58-56.

Opening the show was a heavyweight bout that saw Kaseem Saleem deliver a great right hand to stop Shaun Duffy (Birmingham) 52 seconds into the second stanza.

Both fighters were throwing plenty of leather in an entertaining contest and it was Duffy who had backed Saleem on to the ropes before being caught. The Dumfries man moves to 2-0.