Same old story

But at least some lessons for the home fighters, writes Andy Whittle

DERBY hasn’t been blessed with an abundance of venues over the past 20 years, so it was nice to be visiting a new one, the Arleston Hall on the southern fringes of the city, playing host to a five-bout Scott Calow promotion which, in front of a decent-sized crowd, offered a handful of up-and-comers the chance to further their fistic education against seasoned opposition.

Most watchable contest of the night proved to be the six between unbeaten Majorca-based Welshman Liam Jones and Southampton-stabled Russian Rustem Fatkhullin which finished 60-55 in favour of the former who, relaxed, thoughtful and picking his shots well, moved into an early lead.

Jones didn’t have it all his own way, though. Rustem had come to fight and on several occasions – most notably in a closer penultimate session – he found the room to score with decent lefts of his own.

Another six, which pitched well-supported local puncher Sajid Abid in against Newark centurion Fonz Alexander, proved somewhat more one-sided with Sajid, who at times took his foot off the gas, having enjoyed particularly productive spells, seldom encountering anything by way of trouble.

A trio of fours saw the away corner failing to bank a single point, though the first of them – Nottingham’s JR Smith against Stainforth’s

Jake Bray – proved a decent enough watch, with Smith, improving with every round, coming on particularly strongly in the last.

Derby super-bantam Jake Morgan returned to winning ways, having come a cropper against Batley’s Nabil Ahmed last time out, outpointing Manchester’s stillwinless Sean Jackson, while middleweight

Taylor Greig, another Derby puncher, bossed proceedings throughout against Brierley Hill’s

MJ Hall who, two losses shy of 100, finished with a slightly bloodied nose.

Man in the middle for the night was triallist Ryan Churchill, while Kevin Parker scored from ringside.