‘WON POINTS FOUR’

Little threat from the away corner as the favourites cruise to victory

WILLENHALL MARCH 27 ★★☆☆☆ WHOLE SHOW

THIS Sunday afternoon BCB offering from the Willows Banqueting Suite, the first in almost four years, was an in-house affair with precious little by way of threat to any of the home boxers who, debutant Marco Simmonds apart were all awarded wide four-round points victories by referee Shaun Messer.

Dudley new boy Simmonds wasn’t afforded the easiest of baptism’s as Warminster’s Paul Cummings is one of the better road warriors who does come for a fight. He’d halted another novice last time out, registering a first stoppage in 61 outings in the process, so he was up for it. Credit to Simmonds for coming out on top to the tune of 40-38 at the finish.

That aside though, there wasn’t an awful lot to get excited about as was evidenced by the fact that Brummie Ijaz Ahmed,

who boxed two crackers against East Ham’s Quaise Khademi last year, found himself in a keep-busy run out against Shrewsbury’s Luke Merrifield, who in his seven previous bouts hadn’t won a single round. No prizes for guessing the score of this one after 12 minutes.

There were 40-37 successes for Congoborn super-lightweight Francy Luzoho and two-bout Bloxwich novice Ryan Woolridge

in respective bouts against Swindondomiciled Romanian Constantin Radoi

(another without a win to his name) and Brierley Hill’s MJ Hall who hadn’t had his arm raised in his last 30. There was a win over four too for Walsall super-feather Lewis Morris over Westbrook’s Ricky Leach whose last success (40-36 over a boxer who’d beaten him by the very same score just eight weeks earlier) came just days after the Manchester Arena bombing. Almost five years ago!

Woodville southpaw Connor Parker

took all four rounds against a regular visitor, Bulgarian Iliyan Markov, as did Birmingham’s Mussab Abubaker who eased past Stourbridge veteran Kevin Mccauley.