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Fury Beats Chisora,
Theophane &
Toms Retain Their Crowns In Style
By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro
British Boxing is alive and kicking. Last week we were
treated to one of the best domestic battles in a long, long
time, Kevin Mitchell-John Murray. Last night, at the Mick
Hennessy promoted event at Wembley Arena, boxing fans were
treated to not just the best Heavyweight fight of the year
so far but also a quality undercard absolutely rammed with
top quality all action bouts.
Heading up the show was the eagerly awaited Heavyweight
showdown between British and Commonwealth Champion ‘Del Boy’
Dereck Chisora and Tyson Fury. In the build up to the fight
there were plenty of comparing this domestic biggie with the
recent Wladimir Klitschko-David ‘Hayemaker’ Haye mega fight.
Not surprising really, Tyson is tall and uses his height to
great advantage, like Klitschko, whilst Del Boy relies on
speed and power like Haye to overcome bigger opponents. But
at the end of the day that is the only comparison that could
be made, because unlike Klitschko-Haye what we got was a
great fight with plenty of World class action.
The first round was a bit of an edgy affair which see Tyson
using his jab to keep the stalking Del Boy at bay.
After the first break Dereck turned to his trusty bullying
tactics to back Tyson onto the ropes before letting rip with
a big right, Tyson breaks lose but Del Boy chase him down
letting of a massive double handed salvo. Tyson gathers
himself and responds with a couple of exocets of his own,
Dereck stands his ground and lets of a massive right that
rocks Tyson to the core. No slouch Dereck launches himself
into another salvo of big lefts and rights on the fast back
stepping Tyson. Great round for the Londoner.
Del Boy starts fast and continues the all out assault in the
third, although this time Tyson seems prepared and stands
his ground repelling the forward charging Londoner with big
lefts and rights of his own. Great round for both
protagonists.
More of the same in the fourth, Del Boy launching a
seemingly never ending wave of double handed salvos that
overwhelm the big Mancunian. With barely seconds left on the
clock Dereck lunges forward and launches a scything left
that rocks Tyson to the core, but before he can follow up
the bell rings. Seriously great round for the Londoner.
The fifth was a sensational round full of nonstop back and
forth action. Tyson takes the round in my book just because
he used his size advantage to great effect.
Del Boy starts the sixth fast and takes the fight to the
Mancunian. Tyson stands his ground and lets rip with a big
right. Some great toe-to-toe action ensues until Tyson
starts backing Dereck onto the ropes and fires off a salvo
of big shots. Del Boy shrugs the big man off and lets rip
with a big salvo of his own. Another close round but I feel
Tyson just did enough to take it.
Round seven was more a less a repeat of the sixth, but even
better! It was a great round for both but again I felt Tyson
was that bit busier and landed the more meaningful shots -
and plenty of them.
Del Boy piles on the pressure big time in eighth, with big
lefts and rights raining down on the big Mancunian. Mid
round Tyson tries to turn the table on the Londoner, who
with his back to the corner post beckons Tyson to bring it
on. Close round but it’s Del Boys in my book.
The pace noticeably slows in the ninth, Del Boy seems
content to close up shop whilst backed onto the ropes and
let Tyson use a lot on energy throwing shot after shot
without much effect. Has to be Tyson’s round just because he
worked hardest and threw the more meaningful shots, even if
they were only catching the arms and gloves of the Londoner.
Tyson’s looking strong and again backs Del Boy up with some
massive big scoring bombs at the beginning of the tenth.
Around midway through Del Boy turns the table on the
Mancunian, with a heavy double handed flurry he breaks loose
and turns Tyson onto the ropes. Great, great round with no
clear winner - they were both awesome!
The eleventh was another cracking all action round as was
the twelfth and final round. I have to admit I didn’t expect
to the fight to go all the the way, and to be honest it
nearly didn’t.
Right from the final opening bell Del Boy goes on the attack
letting rip with big lunging lefts. By about the half way
mark things got a bit scrappy, not for long though as Del
Boy got a little space and launched a massive exocet. Tyson
shrugs it off and throws a massive flurry to force the
Londoner back into a corner once again. With his quarry just
where he wanted him Tyson goes in for the finish with
another massive salvo.
Surprisingly both are still upright as the final bell tolls,
so the judges are called upon to decide who loses his
coveted ‘O’, and in this case his British and Commonwealth
titles as the judges declared Tyson Fury victorious by
118-111 and 117-112 (twice) points margin.
Have to say this was the best Heavyweight bout I’ve seen in
a very, very long time - in fact I think the last featured
another Tyson, Mike Tyson, it was that long ago! Shame one
had to lose but who knows maybe there’ll be a rematch in the
near future, I hope so.
Slotted in between the main events was a four round
lightweight contest featuring Enfield’s unbeaten Chris ‘The
Flash’ Evangelou and Rotherham’s Jon Baguley.
A cracking all action fight in which the young Londoner was
able to showcase his exceptional talent to yet another big
crowd. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t all one way traffic from
Evangelou, Baguley didn’t come to make up the numbers.
For four round the pair went for it a hundred and ten
percent, just as I said Evangelou is an exceptional talent
and it showed. His work rate and quality of punches were the
telling difference that earned him a tidy 49-47 points
victory.
Remember the name Chris Evangelou, I predict that this
youngster is going to be huge and it’s just a matter of time
before we see him in Championship action.
The main support bout for Fury-Chisora see Kilburn’s Ashley
‘Treasure’ Theophane defend his British Light Welterweight
crown against former European and IBO World Lightweight
Champion Jason Cook.
Cookie starts fast and takes the fight to the champ in the
fist couple of rounds. Throughout Cookie looks well in
control and lands some cracking big rights. Ashley fought
well but Jason was far more active and landed a lot more
shots.
The fourth was a much closer round, both men upped their
work rate and added even more venom to their punches.
More of the same in the fifth, which was already heading
towards being yet another round for Cookie even before
Ashley was deducted a point for yet another low blow, his
fourth in two rounds!
Round six was a much closer affair as Ashley started to up
the pace and take the fight to Cookie. Some nice back and
forth action ensued, Ashley started to turn the style on and
land some peaches.
The tide starts to turn in the seventh, As before the pair
went at it hammer and tongs for the full three minutes. The
highlight of the all action round see Ashley land a cracking
right, quickly followed by a crisp left-right to which
Cookie countered with an equally venomous right. First clear
round for Ashley in my book, but was it to be too little too
late?
Round eight sees ‘Treasure’ pile on the pressure and at
times looks extremely dangerous, especially when he started
picking his shots. The venom in these shots was clear for
all to see, the tide now flowed a hundred percent in his
direction. An easy round to call in the Champ’s favour.
Ashley dominates round nine, great action throughout the
round but the highlight comes with just seconds left on the
clock. Ashley rocks Cookie with a huge right followed by a
salvo of exocets. Somehow Cookie survives until the bell.
Starting the tenth in the same vein as the previous round
Ashley stalked his quarry before launching a series of big
shots, that culminated in a huge right that sends Cookie
down - and out with just forty three seconds on the clock.
Great performances from both fighters, I have to admit by
the midway point I thought Ashley had well and truly blown
it, I was wrong.
It was another great performance by the reigning champ in
the fight that preceded Theophane-Cook. Southern Area Light
Middleweight Champ Ryan Toms defended his title in emphatic
style against the normally oh so classy Newmarket prospect
‘Phat’ Pat McAleese.
>From the off this looked like would be one helluva fight,
and it was. The early exchanges were fantastic evenly
matched affairs but as the round progressed Ryan switched
tactics and started to really add some power to his shots.
Early in the second Ryan lands a peach of a left, quickly
followed by another. Pat comes back with a cracking double
handed flurry. As the round progresses Pat changes tactics
and starts to box, and box beautifully. Ryan though smelled
blood and starts to really load up his shots.
The third was a real lively affair, Pat again boxes
beautifully but Ryan steps it up and targets the body. As
the round progresses Ryan seems content to pick his shots,
again targeting the body with venomous lefts. After yet
another big body shot backs the Newmarket man up and lets
rip with a powerful double handed flurry. Pat does well to
recover from the onslaught to survive the round.
After various big exchanges in the fourth Ryan lands another
big left to the body, Pat sinks down and takes the count. As
soon as the count’s over Ryan is all over Pat like a rash
and again lands a big left to the body, Pat goes down for
the second time. As the fight resumes the writing is on the
wall and it comes as no surprise when Ryan lets rip with yet
another vicious left to the body. ‘Phat’ Pat goes down for
the third and final time, as the referee waves the fight off
at the two minutes and forty four second mark.
It may have been a short fight but it was a right royal
dust-up. Ryan Toms looks ready to move up and have to say
judging on this performance British Champion Prince Arron
should be the next target in his sights. Now that’s a mouth
watering prospect for the new season.
Heading up the Championship bouts support card see Sheffield
based Qatari Kid Galahad in action against Mansfield based
Latvian Pavels Senkovs.
Nice little work out for the talented Kid Galahad as Senkovs
is no walk over. For five rounds Galahad barely got into
second gear as he out boxed the game Latvian. The final
round see Kid Galahad shift up a couple of gears and go in
search of a stoppage finish. Big double handed flurries
rained down on the Latvian exile for virtually every second
of the final three minutes.
Excellent performance by Kid Galahad to earn a shut out
60-54 points victory.
Now having read this far you will have a good idea that this
show was a bit of a blinder, and that there were some
awesome performances. Now if I were to say to you that my
performance of the night wasn’t Tyson Fury, wasn’t even
Ashley Theophane or Ryan Toms but was three fight veteran
Peter Vaughan you’d probably laugh, that is unless you were
at Wembley Arena on Saturday night.
Peter Vaughan was served up as the sacrificial lamb for hot
Light Middleweight prospect Phil Fury, but as everyone soon
found out this was no lamb but a wolf in sheep’s clothing.
The first couple of rounds there was some great action, and
most coming from young Vaughan who seemed intent to make his
mark. By the third Vaughan was well in his stride and
picking his shots. It wasn’t all one way traffic and there
was some good toe-to-toe action midway through the round,
but Vaughan’s high tempo work rate and accurate punching
secured him the round, as the pair before, easily.
More of the same in the fourth, but come the fifth Vaughan
shifted up a gear and really went to town, mixing it up with
solid body shots and big right hands. Fury responds with
some big shots of his own but nowhere near the level Vaughan
was dishing out. At this point I have Vaughan five rounds up
and looking to cruise to victory.
The sixth goes more or less the same way, but Vaughan digs
into his well stocked arsenal of punches and starts letting
rip with big rights followed by rib cracking hooks or
explosive uppercuts.
Fury obviously realised his precious ‘O’ record was in
serious danger as he shot out to take the fight to Vaughan
in the seventh. Big mistake Vaughan catches the advancing
Mancunian with a huge left and so started yet another round
dominated by the young upstart Vaughan.
The eighth and final round was a cracker, Fury needed a
knockout to keep his record unblemished and he knew it. This
was by far Fury’s best round but again he was out boxed and
out foxed by the excellent Peter Vaughan, who was
magnificent throughout and thoroughly deserved the victory.
I was little surprised that referee Bob Williams scored it
78-75 as Vaughan had won every single round by a country
mile, that’s not just my thoughts but that of the amassed
press corps seated around me.
Waltham Abbey’s Phil Gill was next up, against Sheffield
based Qatari Mo Khaled.
It took Gill a couple of rounds to get to grips with the
awkward Dominic Ingle trained fighter’s switch hitting
style, so Khaled took the first couple of rounds
comfortably.
Once Gill had him sussed he was able to land big rights at
will. Khaled switched tactics and drew Gill in, big mistake
that’s where Gill is at his best and boy did he make the
Qatari exile pay for that mistake.
At the end of six excellent rounds I had Gill ahead by one
round, although in all honesty the third could have gone
either way so wasn’t really that surprised when referee Bob
Williams held both hands aloft and declared it a 57-57 draw.
Yet another top class bout preceded Gill-Khaled, this time
Luton based Bulgarian Bobby George (Boris Georgiev) faced
Manchester’s Tamao Dwyer.
Again it was a cracker, albeit quite one-sided. Right from
the start George turned on the style and played to the
gallery. As early as the second round George would look up
to his many supporters after a particularly slick bit of
work, no surprise really he made it look so easy.
Round after round he plain out boxed Dwyer, picking his
shots before letting rip with a flurry of crisp double
handed flurries.
George turned up the heat in the fourth and really went to
town on the head of Dwyer, so much so that by the end of the
first minute he’d opened up a cut over the left eye of the
Mancunian. Referee Bob Williams was quick to notice the
widening cut and called for the doctor, who declared the cut
too serious to continue and handing George his second TKO
finish in three pro outings.
I arrived at the Wembley Arena just as debutant Lee
Markham’s bout, against the ubiquitous Matt Scriven, was
about to start.
It took a round or so for the youngster to settle down, but
once he turned on the class and picked off the more
experienced Scriven with ease. Late in the third Markham
really shook Scriven and it looked like a stoppage finish
was on the cards. In the final stanza Scriven used his vast
experience to keep out of trouble against the clearly
talented youngster.
After four excellent rounds Lee Markham earned his first pro
win by a shutout 40-36 points margin.
My final words on this most excellent (yes I know I keep
saying excellent, but the bouts and the event were very much
just that) event is I have covered many events, on both
sides of the Atlantic, but this was my first Hennessy Sports
event. If this is the level of quality of all Mick Hennessy
promoted shows I can’t wait for the next, as this was
quality from start to finish.
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