The domestic boxing season in Britain and Ireland has seen a truly action packed start to proceedings this year. The second weekend of September saw Paul McCloskey earn his right to a ‘World Title’ shot via a thriller with Bredis Prescott in Belfast’s Odyssey. On the same show Carl Frampton became Commonwealth Super Bantamweight Champion in fantastic fashion with a fourth round stoppage of Australia’s Mark Quon. A week later we had one of the biggest shows of the calendar year so far in Floyd Mayweather versus WBC Welterweight Champion Victor Ortiz. The return of Mayweather was one of success and controversy as “Money” dispatched the younger Champion with a chilling right hand in a foul filled fourth round.
Las Vegas, Nevada played host to the return of Floyd “Money” Mayweather after a sixteen-month lay-off from the sport. During this time away Mayweather has had many publicised personal problems but none of this has seemed to affect his boxing abilities, as he showed very little ring rust in the opening rounds of his fight with Victor Ortiz. Floyd also took a couple of heavy shots without flinching from the granite fisted Ortiz in what was a much more attack minded display at the marvellous MGM Grand Arena. Floyd began to take control from the third round onwards and Ortiz became visibly frustrated at being beaten to the punch so consistently. This boiled over in the fourth as “Vicious” Victor lived up infamously to his knick name by head butting Mayweather in a blatant fashion. The referee rightly stopped the contest to reprimand Victor and take a point off for his actions. Ortiz immediately hugged Mayweather apologetically but Floyd was having none of it and after a second attempted hug Floyd leaped at his nonchalant opponent.
The first punch to catch Ortiz was a snapping left hand, followed by a right hand that pole-axed Victor, as he looked to the referee in a bemused protest. Mr Joe Cortez, the official in charge, has to be reprimanded after missing the final controversial moments whilst looking out of the ring to officials at ringside. Because of the referee’s lapse it was unclear if “box on” was called and consequently there has been overwhelming controversy. Ultimately though Ortiz should have remembered the first rule of them all in a boxing ring … “Protect yourself at all times”.
Back on our shores earlier on the same night (the 17th of September), Stephen Smith lost his British and Commonwealth Featherweight titles in a brutal defeat to the previously unheralded Lee Selby, in one of British Boxing’s biggest upsets of the year. The talented Liverpudlian Smith had looked very impressive in his wins over John Simpson, who is a very tough featherweight, and may have underestimated Selby’s power and effectiveness in controlling fights from a distance. Stephen walked on to a lot of shots throughout the fight without changing his tactics. This resulted in Smith getting caught heavily with a sharp left to the temple from Selby as they entered the final minute of the eighth round. Stephen can comeback from this loss but must take a break before making his return.
Selby must be congratulated for going into his opponent’s backyard as a huge underdog and producing the best performance of his fledging career. His comprehensive win has set up numerous potential Celtic showdowns against Belfast’s Martin Lindsay and the aforementioned John Simpson of Scotland. In the fight that followed this upset the older Smith brother Paul destroyed veteran Welshman Paul Samuels in the very first round of their chief support bout. This result showed Paul’s professionalism, as he had witnessed his younger brother being beaten just moments before he was scheduled to fight. Paul can now look forward to a mooted December matchup against British and Commonwealth Super Middleweight Champion George Groves.
On the Friday just gone (the 30th of September) the British Boxing public were treated to one of the fights of the year between Liam Walsh and Paul Appleby for Walsh’s Commonwealth Super Featherweight title at the brilliant York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. The fight was the first live fight aired on the newly established ‘Box Nation’ channel. Frank Warren has a share in the purely combat sport based channel and ‘Box Nation’ will screen most of his shows from now on. Warren does not own the channel and other promoters will also have their shows screened on the channel. One of these promoters is the powerful Sauerland Promotions of Germany, who have signed a reported three-year deal with the channel. Exciting times all around for ‘Box Nation’ and British Boxing.
This excitement was at its most fervent on Friday evening as Norwich’s Liam Walsh out toughed Queensferry native Paul Appleby in a thrilling Commonwealth Super Featherweight title fight. The contest ebbed and swayed continually, with Walsh being heavily knocked down in the sixth before showing great courage to fight back and repay Appleby the favour in the tenth round. That knockdown in the tenth round prompted Appleby’s trainer Billy Walsh to rightfully pull his man out. It was a fantastic fight that both boxers should be proud of being part of and is surely a prime candidate for the domestic fight of the year.
I have been following the AIBA World Amateur Boxing Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan very closely this week and have been delighted with the excellent overall display shown by all the Home Nations and Ireland teams. I will give all my thoughts on events out in Baku in my next Blog instalment that will follow this one shortly. Good luck to all those from the Home Nations and Ireland teams who are still in contention for medals and congratulations to all those who qualified for next summer’s London Olympics by getting into the Quarter Finals of their respective weight classes.
Over the past week I have been lucky enough to attend two excellent charitable events in London. The first of these was the Co-Operative ‘Be Inspired’ Dinner at the Roundhouse in Camden, London. The event supports the Activate Sport Foundation, who help young people see the benefits that sport can have on their lives through numerous Activate Sport programmes. I was awarded the Co-Operative ‘Be Inspired’ award at the dinner, which I am very grateful for, and enjoyed the whole evening immensely.
The next event I attended was the Pride of Britain Awards where I had the pleasure of presenting Bob Woodward with a ‘Lifetime Achievement’ for his services to charity. Bob has raised close to £100 million through the charity CLIC (Cancer and Leukaemia in Childhood) that he founded in 1976 whilst his son Robert fought childhood cancer. Sadly Robert lost his battle with cancer but because of Bob CLIC has now helped thousands of families through the toughest of times. They were my family’s saviour when my daughter Danika suffered from Leukaemia as a child. It was CLIC’s support that made Danika’s recovery bearable and she has now grown into a wonderful young woman. Bob Woodward is an exceptional person and fully deserves his Pride of Britain recognition.
