BETTER AND BETTER: REPORT

Adam Thorn reports from, erm, YouTube

Thanks to a fire on a train (hopefully nobody was hurt) I couldn’t make it to Canning Town to see Team Southpaw Jab’s Tommy Murphy fight at what was the Peacock Gym. It's nice that they put these small hall shows on and still have them streamed online because a lot of promoters would shy away from the idea of sharing their content online when they want to sell tickets. It's really good to see this and have commentary. Denzel Bentley, British Middleweight Champion, is good value on the mic.

Though I didn’t catch the name of the MC he was fucking hilarious, but far from the normal (I am not against this). Swearing like a sailor and handling the emcee’s duties with casual aplomb, it had me laughing. I only wish I were reporting from ringside. There’s no glamour to these shows but that's the point, the boxers get out. Peacock are explicit about that; it’s a commendable format.

The main event of the afternoon was, of course, Team Southpaw Jab’s Tommy Murphy.

Tommy claims to not be a welterweight, but he made his opponent Gurjant Singh look small in every way. The fight was made at super lightweight, but I like winding Tommy up. The southpaw trapped Singh in the corner from the get go, unleashing with variety and lining up his backhand left. It looked like an early night.

Gurjant Singh is a tough bastard, and knew when to fight back but he had to fight back in places. Murphy pawed at him with the jab and worked the ribs, the sternum and all the other unfun parts of the body to be punched in. Tommy looked powerful, hitting clean through the guard and forcing false bravado from Singh, who had never been stopped.

Despite looking ready to go, Singh held on, though he was totally outclassed and outgunned by Murphy, who slipped almost everything coming back his way. He’s only 22, Tommy, and has looked better and better as a professional. The man who definitely isn’t a welterweight won every round, landing a perfect 40-36 point win.

Romanian heavyweight Aurel Ignat had stopped every one of his four opponents before meeting debutante Dale Kellam. Kellam can be commended in making it hard to tell who was the away fighter (something the whole show boasted to its credit) as the two swung away. Ignat figured him out though, and mixed his heavy hands up, landing clean and hurtful to head and body. In the second he dropped Kellan to the canvas on his knees and forced referee Sean McAvoy to rightly wave it off.

Do not believe BoxRec because welterweight Shamari McKay did not beat Nicaraguan Greyvin Mendoza. Mendoza took advantage of McKay’s inaccuracy and from the centre of the ring bulldozed his way to a 38-38 draw.

Aaron Prospere beat Lee Hallet 59-54 to go 12-0-0 (4) and tee up his Southern Area Super Lightweight Title fight with Yaser Al Ghena in September. Denis Denikajev has vacated the position and it should be a close but winnable fight for Prospere.

Middleweight Hajji Muhis took a 39-37 win home over Ramiro Blanco and with that the show was over. Credit to the Bowers and matchmaker Eddie Muscat for a well put together piece of small hall exposure.