On Saturday evening we brought you the first installment of our free-to-air TV showing with Sporty Stuff TV. Screening a successful four round debut for Roman Fury, a tough battle between Reece Mould and Jordan Ellison and a scrappy but electric main event for the vacant English super bantamweight title between Zahid Hussain and Razaq Najib with an atmosphere to to savour at Doncaster racecourse.
The main event saw two local lads in a rematch from their March 2019 bout that was over 10 rounds in which Hussain was given the decision of 96-94 refereed and scored by Howard Foster on the night.
The fight started and remained how many imaged it to based on their styles, with Najib's attempt to make it a scrappy affair from the first bell and pursued the same theme throughout knowing it would make it more difficult for Hussain to try to establish and maintain his jab from his visibly longer reach. Some extremely close rounds in a very tough fight to score round by round which I felt Hussain was edging the large part of the contest with his response to Najibs rougher approach.
A purposeful jab and quicker movement in fragments of the fight had Hussain looking more confident and landing much more polished work even though it was a match up that remained with them boxing on the inside. He was the man who tried to box and move and wanted to be engaged in a different fight than he was forced into. The atmosphere of two local fighters in a main event can always bring out a different kind of warfare especially when it's for a championship belt, and it did just that. Over the 20 rounds shared as profrssionals the chapter is now closed as Hussain was given a unanimous decision of 100-92, 97-94, 98-93 and was crowned the new English super bantamweight champion to the delight of a stronghold his supporters as he was interviewed post fight on live television, a nice experience for a man now with a title in a littered division with such names as former British champion Marc Leach.
Reece Mould vs Jordan Ellison
Late replacement Ellison gave Reece Mould an exceptionally good fight where he got the decision of 78-76 over 8 rounds refereed by Reece Carter.
Mould was meant to box Hamed Ghaz for the English lightweight belt but for Ghaz to pull out due to injury. Rounds in the bank and a rearrangement of the scheduled title fight should come in the not to distant future.
Roman Fury vs Ryan Hibbert
After the postponement of the Blackpool winter gardens show last month due to the passing of our majesty Queen Elizabeth 2nd it ended up working out rather well for a young man that's never had any amateur boxing experience before as he got to make his debut on live television, Fury didn't look out of place in the small hall environment, winning every round against Ryan Hibbert over the scheduled four in front of his Dad Big John Fury and his brothers Tyson and Tommy.
There is an art to building a boxer and with little time in the ring Roman looked as though he enjoyed the first night of his boxing journey as he beds into the professional ranks. There is no rush to move a fighter especially a raw novice and there will be many eyes on young Roman with the attention that the household boxing surname he carries.
The rest of the undercard was aired on our YouTube channel from 7pm.
In the floater fight Jake Goodwin passed the chin check against the notoriously big swinging Serge Ambombo as they shared 6 rounds. The cleaner work for the large part of the contest from Goodwin whereas Ambombo finished the last round stronger with his usual big swinging over hand rights that seen him pick up a knockout win against Rhys Woods in Bolton last month. A solid test for Goodwin who moves to 5-0.
Sonny Taylor returned to action after a year out to take his record to 8-0 against Ossie Jervier. Winning all but one round over the completed six. The trademark body shots from Taylor was ripping in at points and had his man hurt and as the contest was drawing to a close he finished extremely strongly with several unanswered straight shots on a tough Jervier who's been in the ring with the likes of Isaac Chamberlain.
Jake Bray rematched Owen Kirk in his hometown after his win in April this year, with Kirk seeking revenge he was forced into a fight which he didn't prefer which he admitted afterwards, nip and tuck on the inside and a tough contest which referee Ron Kearney saw 58-58 over six rounds. A trilogy match up could and should close the chapter as both expressed that desire they shared an interview with Lee Hogan for VIP boxing afterwards in which both lads shown their full respect to one another which is always great to see in combat sports.
Bradley Cousins suffered the first defeat of his career against the well respected 166 fight veteran journeyman 'poochi' Lewis van Poetsch. A deserved win for poochi who is on a good run of form with two wins in the last five weeks and has three more six rounders scheduled for the remainder of October.
Levi Smith, Josh Hargreaves and Lewis Booth all earned shut out victories over four rounds against Jamie Quinn, Jake Osgood and Luke Middleton respectively. Taking their records to 4-0 for Smith and Hargreaves and 14-0 for Booth. Jamie Mellers also now 4-0 dropped the notoriously active boxer Seamus Devlin twice on his way to a superb 40-34 win to open the show.
A big thank you to everybody who tuned in on YouTube and Sporty Stuff TV. The undercard and all post fight interviews can be seen on our YouTube channel. Please subscribe to keep updated on all of our 78 boxers and the next VIP shows where there is plans to host in house tournaments which is to be announced in due course.
