Derry Mathews new British champion, dethrones Martin Gethin

Derry Mathews new British champion, dethrones Martin Gethin

At the timeless Olympia venue in the fighting city of Liverpool, UK, Derry Mathews became the new British lightweight champion after dethroning the reigning champion Martin Gethin. In a thoroughly entertaining twelve rounds, Mathews was the clear winner on many scorecards, despite only being awarded a split decision on the judges scorecards.

Mathews (35-9-2) had suffered defeat in his last outing, whilst Gethin had also b, but started the contest quicker of the two men and used the speed and accuracy of his jab to take the vast majority of the opening rounds with relative ease. However Gethin (24-5-1) began to edge his way back into the contest in the second half of the fight with Mathews’ work rate slowing every so slightly. Still, it was the Liverpool man who landed the cleaner shots and was able to use his ring experience to prevent Gethin from ever imposing himself on the fight.

Although there was confusion with the judges scorecards at the end of the fight, Mathews seemingly took the victory 117-113, 116-112 & 114-115 to become British champion for the second time. Mathews will now next be in action on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora on July 26 at the Phones-4-U Arena in Manchester, UK when he defends his newly acquired title against mandatory challenger Terry Flanagan – who was also in action on the night.

With one of the most famous family names in British boxing, there is always a level of interest whenever Chris Eubank Jr takes to the ring and that was the case on Saturday night when he fought Robert Swierzbinksi in an eight round middleweight bout. Eubank Jr employed strange tactics in the opening round by staying in his own corner with his feet firmly rooted in the same sport for the whole of the round before stunning his Polish opponent with a solid right hand.

Eubank dropped Swierzbinksi with a sweet timely right uppercut in the second round and the Polishman hit the canvas twice in the fourth thanks to a right hook to the body and a right uppercut respectively, and once again faced a ten count in the fifth round. The pattern of knockdowns continued into round six with Swierzbinksi hitting the canvas for a fifth and sixth. After the seventh knockdown at the start of round seven the referee finally waved off the fight in one of the most bizarre contests that I have ever witnessed. Eubank, now 15-0 with 10 KOs, undoubtedly has talent and possesses a level of power, but his inability to jump on his opponent and close the fight out earlier will not endear him to boxing pundits and fans alike.

In an eight round light welterweight contest, the 2012 Team GB Olympic Captain and popular local southpaw fighter, Thomas Stalker, was in action against Ryan Hardy. Despite an inactive second half of 2013 due to injury, Stalker returned to the ring in February of this year and followed that up with his first eight round contest a month later. Stalker went into Saturday’s fight with just the two knockouts in his first seven wins and there was a sense that he was looking for the stoppage from the opening bell. The man affectionately known as ‘The Captain’ controlled the vast majority of the fight and used his accurate, range-finding jab to take the contest 80-73 on the referee’s scorecard.

Also in action was the talented Manchester fighter Terry Flanagan. In a warm-up contest before a shot at the British lightweight title, Flanagan stopped Yordan Vasilev (16-36-2) in the second round to extend his record to 24-0, which is currently the second-longest unbeaten record in British boxing behind Kell Brook. Flanagan dropped Vasilev in the opening round and a flurry of punches in the opening engages of the second round the referee jumped in to stop the contest, with Vasilev looking like he had nothing left to offer.

Meanwhile in an eight round light welterweight bout, Jack Catterall faced a tough test in Krzysztof Szot (18-13-1) of Poland. The 20 year old Catterall moved his record to 8-0 with a solid 80-72 points victory in his first fight under the Frank Warren banner. In only his second professional fight, Ciaran McVarnock took a 40-37 points decision against Harvey Hemsley in one of the live floats of the evening.

In the first televised fight of the evening, Tommy Langford’s six round contest with Alistair Warren came to a premature end after an accidental head-clash resulted in heavy bleeding from Warren’s left eye and the doctor waiving off the fight towards the end of the fifth round. Langford was awarded the decision 50-46 on the referees scorecard to take his record to 9-0. Making his professional debut, the highly rated 20 year old lightweight Joe Costello impressed with a perfectly delivered right hand to send his opponent, veteran journeyman Youssef Al Hamidi, slumped to the canvas with just under a minute to go in the first round. Al Hamidi managed to beat the referee’s count, but the third man in the ring waived the contest off to hand Costello his first win.

In the untelevised bouts, Craig Evans (24 year old and 12-0) defeated Dame Sek 78-76 in an eight round lightweight contest, whilst McCauley McGowan & Kevin Hodkinson enjoyed wins on their professional debuts by outpointing Jason Nesbitt & Jack Heath respectively. Meanwhile the Liverpool light welterweight Nathan Brough extended his unbeaten record to 11-0 with a 79-74 points victory over Mark McKray.

-Dominiv Rowan / @Dom1878
-Contributor to www.BehindTheGloves.com