Event Report: Summer Fight Night Explosion, York Hall on 19th June 2010

Posted on | June 21, 2010 | No Comments

Report By Gianluca (Rio) Di Caro

Promoter Steve Goodwin came up trumps again on Saturday night with his ‘Summer Fight Night Explosion’ show at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, London. The only downer being the cancellation of the main event,Yassine El Maachi versus Dee Mitchell, due to El Maachi, who recently recovered from a virus that kept him out of training for ten days, having a WBC African title shot next month in Morocco.

The rest of the card more than made up for the disappointment though. With El Maachi out the main focus fell on former English Super Featherweight Champion Ryan Barrett and Mark ‘The Flash’ Alexander, who are due to face each other in a title battle at the Steve Goodwin promoted “It’s Personal” show at the York Hall on September 11th.

Barrett was the first of the pair in action, against Jason Nesbitt. Right from the first bell the former champ’s class shined through, controlling the ring with ease, picking off the highly experienced Nesbitt with sharp jabs and crisp combinations. It was good solid performance by Barrett to take the victory by a 60-54 points margin.

Alexander’s fight, against Sid Razak, followed Barrett-Nesbitt. Everyone was anticipating a repeat of Alexander’s explosive, four knockdown, performance over Michael ‘Simply’ Devine back in April. Instead Alexander took a more cautious approach, in some ways emulating Barrett’s game plan over Nesbitt. Alexander didn’t seem to get into full flow until the third round, but when he did he just plain outclassed Razak.

Rounds four to six were lively affairs, with Razak pressing hard and Alexander responding in magnificent fashion. ‘The Flash’ we all know suddenly appeared, dancing around picking off Razak at will with slick jabs, super fast combinations and some serious showmanship that got the crowd really going. Razak responded by throwing bombs which Alexander just slipped aside before letting rip with more wicked jabs and hooks. Whilst the expected knockout finish didn’t appear Alexander had clearly thrown down the gauntlet to Barrett.

Next up was Duke McKenzie’s undefeated protégé Tony Owen, against the highly experienced Kristian Laight. Owen put on a boxing master class, controlling the fight both on the inside and outside and able to display his full arsenal of lightning fast punches. A great win for Owen, by a 40-36 points margin, who is one of the middleweight divisions most exciting new prospects.

Whilst the preceding bouts were all top class, action filled affairs, the fight of the night award has to go to the middleweight contest between the debuting John Brennan last minute replacement Chris Brophy. What a fight, non stop toe-to-toe action, with both combatants constantly landing clean, heavy shots on each other. The seriously entertaining fight was rightly declared a 39-39 draw.

Almost as exciting, as Brennan-Brophy, was the following Middleweight clash between Michael Norgrove and Ryan Clark. Norgrove was looking to build on his maiden victory back in April. What he clearly hadn’t expected was the fast starting of Clark, who shot out of the blocks to take the fight to the newcomer. Norgrove responded well but was constantly being caught by wicked overhand rights and hooks. Throughout the four rounds the two protagonists gave as good as they took, with neither backing down. The end result was declared a 39-38 victory to Norgrove, who now has a 2-0 record, but could so easily have been a declared a win for Clark or even a draw.

The final fight of the night, between Marco Stephenson and Ultrachem TKO Gym’s Matt ‘FireFighter’ Jack, was another cracker with both combatants going at it hammer and tongs throughout. Like the previous fight the result could have gone either way, or given as a draw, but the referee see it as a victory for Stephenson by a 39-38 points margin.

The other two results on the night were:

Adam Battle(debut) beat Danny Donychev(2-21-0) 40-36, 4×3 Welterweight.

Bradley Evans(4-0-1) beat Karl Taylor(16-138-7) 60-54, 6×2 Lightweight

Steve Goodwin took a big risk putting on the ‘Summer Fight Night Explosion’ during the World Cup. Whilst the York Hall was not sold out he did manage to attract a good size crowd by putting on such a quality card.

Goodwin Promotions next event, at the York Hall on September 11th, is set to be even bigger, more spectacular affair featuring Ryan Barrett versus Mark ‘The Flash’ Alexander for a major international title (TBA), ‘Phat’ Pat McAlees also in a possible title fight and Smokin’ Joe Frazier’s protégé Marianne ‘Golden Girl’ Marston’s UK debut against the experienced Lana Cooper.