Glory Road undercard report: Joshua, Eggington and Cardle win

Anthony Joshua beat Konstantin Airich with a third knockout, adding to his unbeaten streak. Anthony Joshua is one of the brightest prospects in boxing; Joshua won gold at 2012 London Olympics, and seems to have the physical and technical ability to have a bright future in the professional ranks.

Joshua started the first round looking extremely sharp, landing clean and hurtful jabs, in addition to landing the right hand against Arich. Joshua continued to show his strong jab and right hand in the second round. Airich survived though, and was able to start the third round, the only opponent to date who has seen the third round against Joshua. However, Joshua landed a terrific right hand in the third round which hurt Airich; Joshua followed up and landed a flurry of punches, with one landing when Airich was on the canvas. Airich survived the count, and the referee proceeded to warn Joshua with the punch when Arich was on the floor. After the warning, Joshua looked to finish Arich, and after landing some hurtful punches, the referee stopped the fight, as Arich was seriously hurt. After the fight, Eddie Hearn looking to progress the quality of Joshua’s opponents. Another impressive victory for Joshua.

The fight between Anthony Crolla and Gamaliel Diaz for the WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight ended on a disappointing note, with a clash of heads and a cut to Gamaliel Diaz meant that the fight ended in a technical draw, due to the fight being stopped before four rounds.

Both fighters started at a measured pace, with the first few rounds being hard to differentiate between the two fighters; Crolla was active and measured with the jab, with Diaz landing solid body shots on the inside. A clash of heads at the end of round three opened a serious cut over the eyelid of Diaz. Diaz stayed on his stool when the bell rang for Round 4, and the referee waved the fight off on advice  due to an accidental handbutt. After the fight, Crolla expressed his disappointment of the outcome of the fight, however the promoter of Crolla, Eddie Hearn, stated that he is planning for Crolla to fight WBA lightweight World Champion, Richard Abril, in his next fight.

In an entertaining fight, Sam Eggington was victorious against Denton Vassell via 8th round TKO for the eliminator of the British welterweight title; it was a competitive fight, with both fighters having success before the impressive finish by Eggington. Eggington started the fight looking sharp, landing clean punches against Vassell. In the third round, Eggington landed a terrific left hook, which stunned Denton Vassell; Eggington continued to catch Vassell with clean and hard punches throughout the round, with Vassell showing courage and heart to survive the round. However, this seemed to awaken Vassell, who made the fourth round a competitive and punished Eggington in the fifth round with terrific inside punching, landing solid uppercuts and body shots from the inside and went upstairs to hurt and stun Eggington with terrific straight punches to the chin. The next few rounds were competitive, with both fighters landed good punches. In the 8th round, Eggington stunned Vassell and followed up with landing accurate combinations, stunning Vassell and the referee stopped the fight, with Vassell in no state to continue.

Scott Cardle scored an impressive first round knockout victory over Kirk Gooding to remain undefeated at 16-0 (4KOs). Both fighters started at a quick pace; Cardle knocked Gooding to the canvas with a well-timed counter uppercut after Gooding was defensively open throwing punches. Gooding survived the count, but Cardle continued to land successive punches, especially the straight right hand. After a number of unanswered right hands, the referee stopped the contest, a stoppage which seemed a tad premature. Regardless, Cardle made an impressive statement with this victory.

– Qadeer Ali / @abdulqadeer

– Contributor for www.BehindtheGloves.com