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Conquest Cruises To Victory,
The Mac Returns & Buglioni Plain Sensational
By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro
With the proposed Lee
Selby vs John Simpson British and Commonwealth title
clash falling through Francis and George Warren pulled
out all the stops to ensure that Friday’s BoxNation
televised event at the York Hall in London was up to the
standard of their previous couple of events.
The brothers first elevated chief support - the Tony
Conquest versus Toks Owoh Southern Area Cruiserweight
Title clash - to main event and drafted in former two
time Cruiserweight World Champion Enzo Maccarinelli to
face Hungary’s unbeaten Georgy Marosi, in a Light
Heavyweight contest, as chief support.
In hindsight the Warren boys could have saved a little
money, they didn’t need to pay out more money for a pair
of big names, as the undercard was nothing short of top
class, and any of the bouts could easily have been
designated chief support and the paying public would
have been just as happy.
On the same subject I could quite easily start with the
opening fight of the night, which was a cracking
Heavyweight bout between Tom Little and Hastings Rasani,
but I wont, I’ll start with the main event of the
evening - Tony ‘The Conqueror’ Conquest versus Toks Owoh.
There was no doubt that both protagonists took this
regional title tilt seriously, both looked the part and
more importantly both were well prepared for a ten round
war, as that’s what we got.
Right from the off both went for it hammer and tongs, no
sizing the other up or pacing themselves. Owoh set out
his stall by utilising his excellent jab but Conquest
was more than ready for that and used superb movement to
avoid before countering with stiff jabs or body shots of
his own. It was a fairly close round but I scored it in
favour of Conquest as he was a little more active and
landed the more meaningful shots.
The highly experienced Owoh was a little more savvy in
the second stanza and started to mix it up a bit more,
letting rip with big shots to the head and body. However
the younger Conquest was just too fast for the veteran
and often landed his volleys first. By mid round
Conquest had really settled in, at a fast pace, and
started to control things with relative ease.
Conquest was in a groove and in the third started to
showcase his full arsenal of punches, tight uppercuts
and scything hooks on the inside and big left-rights
from every conceivable angle when at range.
Round four was a barnstorming slugfest, both warriors
just stood toe-to-toe and let rip. Even though working
on the inside should have suited Owoh better it was
Conquest’s speed that was still the telling factor.
Before Owoh could let off any telling shots Conquest
would fire off a salvo of wickedly fast sharp rights to
the body, forcing Owoh to take a step back before
countering. Each time Owoh threw a shot Conquest had
already countered with two or three heavier shots back.
More of the same in the middle rounds with Conquest
piling on the pressure and beating Owoh to the punch
virtually every time.
By the start of the eighth Owoh was clearly down on
points and needing a knockout. However the pace that
Conquest had set was causing the former World Super
Middleweight star big problem, Owoh started to look
dejected and covered up more and more, to no avail as
Conquest kept up the relentless assault and was getting
way too much success.
Things got worse for Owoh in the ninth, Conquest stepped
it up another gear and plain broke down Owoh’s guard
with a relentless double handed assault. Conquest was on
fire and looked to get his first championship belt by
way of a stoppage finish. Throughout the round the
Romford man just backed up Owoh and let rip with every
conceivable punch, to which Owoh barely replied. Referee
Ken Curtis started to take a close look at Owoh to
ensure that he could still defend himself, Owoh was
clearly aware of Curtis’ presence as each time he got
close Owoh would let rip with a half hearted flurry.
Early in the final minute Conquest landed a massive
uppercut, that sent Owoh’s gum shield skittering across
the canvas. Owoh looked relieved as Curtis stopped the
action to retrieve the errant piece of plastic and took
advantage of the short break to get his breath back.
With strict instruction from his corner Conquest slowed
the pace in the final round and worked on the outside.
However Owoh was still unable to gain any advantage as
Conquest still easily outworked , out-punched and
plain-outclassed the former star for the whole three
minutes to be rightly crowned the BBBofC Southern Area
Cruiserweight Champion and earn a title showdown with
British Champion Leon ‘Solid’ Williams on January 13th.
For the record, referee Ken Curtis who scored it 100-91
in favour of Conquest.
Preceding the main event see Southampton’s undefeated
Light Welter Matty Tew against Crawley’s ‘Rockin’ Robin
Deakin.
Now if Tew and his army of supporters thought that this
was going to be a walk in the park they were going to be
mightily disappointed. Deakin always comes to fight and
boy oh boy did he turn it on last night for the TV
cameras.
The first round was a pretty close, after the initial
‘sussing out’ period Deakin obviously felt confident
enough to take it to the Southampton man. There was some
excellent exchanges throughout with Deakin doing most of
the play making and forcing Tew play off the jab or
counter. The round could have gone either way to be
honest but I gave it to Tew, as even though he threw a
lot less punches than Deakin, they were by far the more
telling.
As I said the first round was close, but the second was
even closer still. Again it was Deakin setting the pace
and outworking Tew, on the other hand Tew landed the
better shots, just not enough in my book to secure the
round and as such I marked it down as a draw.
More of the same in the third, with Deakin controlling
centre ring to force Tew on to the back foot. As in the
previous rounds Deakin was by far the busiest and
throwing a lot more shots that Tew, but it was Tew that
landed the meaningful shots. Personally I scored this
round in favour of Deakin as again Tew didn’t do enough
to secure the round, or in this case even earn a draw.
As before the final round was a storming all action
affair with Deakin taking the fight to Tew, who must
have been aware it was going to be close on points as he
stepped up the work rate. Deakin is as savvy as they
come and used every trick in the book to keep Tew tied
up, Tew on the other hand wasn’t prepared to allow
Deakin to get too much success this round and started to
utilise his jab and combinations more to easily secure
the final round.
There was no surprise when referee Ken Curtis raised
Tew’s hand aloft, but when MC Mike Goodall announced the
score as 40-36, in favour of Tew, I was more than a
little surprised, as well as disappointed for Deakin who
had made this fight what it was - a cracker.
The highly anticipated return of former WBU/WBO
Cruiserweight World Champion Enzo Maccarinelli, making
his first appearance in the Light Heavy division,
preceded Tew-Deakin.
Maccarinelli’s opponent, Budapest’s Gyorgy Marosi, came
to the UK with an unbeaten record, if he thought he had
any chance of returning to Hungary with it intact that
was soon dispelled at the weigh in. Maccarinelli stands
6’4” and Marosi, who is listed on BoxRec as 5’11 1/2”,
considerably shorter at around 5’9” at best.
No surprise than that Maccarinelli dominated the early
going with solid jabbing, about the best the much
shorter Marosi could do was launch himself and let rip
with big overhand rights, trouble is Maccarinelli barely
had to move to get out the way and pick off the off
balance Hungarian.
About midway through the round Big Mac landed a wicked
left hook that sent Marosi stumbling back onto the
ropes, Maccarinelli instantly crashed a big overhand
right to the Hungarian’s forehead. Before Big Mac could
fire off another shot referee stepped in and stopped the
fight on the one minute and thirty one second mark.
Maccarinelli got the first win under his belt at Light
Heavy and in doing so showed the viewing public that he
still has the big punches in his arsenal.
Whilst Big Mac stopping Marosi wouldn’t come as much
surprise to most, the smart money would never have been
on young Frank Buglioni, on only his second pro outing,
doing the same to former Southern Area Champ, and
awkward southpaw, Paul Morby.
Right from the off the Mark Tibbs trained, at the TRAD
TKO Gym in Canning Town, youngster took control with
clinical solid jabs, often followed up with double
handed flurries of shots. Barely had the fight got
underway before one such assault sent Morby back to the
ropes, and moments later to the canvas for the first
time.
Morby got to his feet as referee Ken Curtis completed
the count. Buglioni took full advantage of the clearly
still dazed and confused state of the Portsmouth man and
started another full on double handed assault, that
sends Morby back to the canvas.
As Morby rises his legs have clearly gone, Curtis is
quick to notice this and instantly waves off the fight
at the two minute ad thirty seven second mark.
Buglioni is definitely one to watch, it was one thing
stopping the highly erratic Sabie Monteith, but to stop
Morby in just one round is something else altogether.
The problem Francis and George Warren are going to now
have is who do you match him up with, it’s hard to
revert to journeymen after such a meaningful win, which
means that Buglioni is going to have to be fast tracked
against better and better opposition.
I spoke with young Frankie at the end of the evening and
put this to him, his response was “I don’t want to take
a step back after tonight, I want even tougher
competition.”
Prior to Buglioni’s sensational victory over Morby his
TRAD TKO gym mate Billy Morgan was in action, against
Marc Callaghan.
Morgan performance was equally sensational as gym mate’s
Buglioni’s, albeit in a a very different way.
Right from the off Morgan was clearly a class and half
above Callaghan. The youngster was in total control from
start to finish and showcased his fully stocked arsenal
with aplomb.
The effectiveness of his work soon see copious amounts
of blood leaking from a deep cut on Callaghan’s
forehead, which was caused by a succession of big
overhand rights.
Referee Jeff Hinds took a long hard look at the cut at
the end of the first and decided it wasn’t too serious
and the bout was allowed to continue.
As in the first Morgan dominated the proceedings and put
on one helluva boxing display to easily secure each and
every round, as was reflected by Hinds’ 40-36 score.
It really was a superb victory for the Jimmy and Mark
Tibbs trained fighter. Last night the Canning Town
youngster showed Francis and George Warren that it’s
time for him to step up from four rounders, don’t be
surprised to see him in a six rounder on his next
outing.
The opening fight of the night see former World Champ
Graham Earl’s heavyweight discovery Tom Little make his
second pro outing, against the highly experienced
Hastings Rasani.
24 year Little showed little respect for his seasoned
opponent and just plain went all out for a knockout from
the start. Each time Rasani came in range Little let rip
with a big right.
Rasani’s been in with the best so used his experience to
keep Little at bay as much as possible, but Little was
bursting with youthful exuberance and would constantly
push forward, which caused Rasani to rethink his game
plan.
Rasani started to stand his ground and trade but the big
lad from Hatfield proved to be just too big and strong
and as such easily dominated each and every round on his
way to a shutout 40-36 points victory.
As I said at the beginning Francis and George Warren had
put together a really strong card that even after losing
the Selby-Simpson title fight proved to be yet another
top class night of boxing by their fledgling Queensberry
Promotions organisation.
Roll on their next show and more importantly after
watching Tony Conquest’s performance last night I for
one can’t wait for the 13th January when he gets to face
Leon Williams. Mind you can’t see him dominating that
one as much as he did against Toks Owoh, especially as
Williams is a big punching fighter who likes to walk his
opponents down - oh and Williams knocked Conquest out in
just 45 seconds when they last met.
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