By Alexey Sukachev
Civic Hall, West Midlands - Three opponents opposed Adil Anwar during his Prizefighter march to glory, and all three of them were soundly beaten and convincingly defeated in brilliant fashion. The third victim of the 'Platinum Kid' was Tyrone Nurse (22-1, 4 KOs) who suffered the first setback of his career in a one-sided final. Anwar, 24, captured 32,000 British pounds to aid his Prizefighter trophy.
Anwar, now 16-1, with 7 KOs, didn't change his tricky, stick-and-move style in the final. Nurse, who usually fights with much more passion and aggression, decided to switch up his style - and that decision proved to be fatal. All three rounds were very similar: Nurse tried to chase his opponent down but his reflexes weren't unparalleled, and his power wasn't enough to put Anwar on the defensive. The new champion, on the other hand, moved around while hitting Nurse time and again with well-placed, stinging blows - which made Nurse think carefully every time he tried to rush in. Rounds two and three were particularly effective for Adil Anwar, who clearly outboxed Nurse on his way up.
Scores were: 30-28 (John Keane), 29-28 (Howard Foster) and 30-27 (Victor Loughlin) - all for Adil Anwar. BoxingScene scorecard was similar to that of Keane.
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Adil Anwar (15-1, 7 KOs) proved he is a viable opponent for Nurse after his three-round masterpiece against John Watson (14-3, 6 KOs). Anwar moved and boxed, danced around and peppered a slower and a less potent fighter with all possible punches and hits. Watson was hurt several times but never went down in a one-sided affair. He was just unable to land anything of note against a slick and elusive defensive wizard like Anwar. Not surprisingly, all three judges gave to Anwar every round in a shutout - 30-27. The same score belongs to BoxingScene, which considers Anwar to be a slight favorite against the same slickster in Tyrone Nurse.
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Undefeated spoiler-stylist Tyrone Nurse (22-0, 4 KOs) advanced to the finals of the Prizefighter series, with a spirited but close win over veteran Young Mutley (30-7, 14 KOs). Nurse boxed and moved, sticking his jab into the face of a bigger and more aggressive opponent. Mutley was getting better with each round but time wasn't on his side, as Nurse was much faster and outjabbing him. In the end, all three judges saw it identically: 29-28 - for Nurse (as was the score of Sky Sports crew). BoxingScene scored it more close: 29-29 - a draw.
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In the final quarterfinal, dangerous John Watson (14-2, 6 KOs) interrupted his recent streak of two stoppage losses in a row, with his own big victory over local hero Dean Harrison (16-7, 5 KOs). Watson dropped him down with an overhand right in the beginning of the first, and wobbled him with another hard right hand soon thereafter. Harrison staggered to the corner and ate several more clean blows. Referee John Keane saw enough and put an end to the action at 1:40 of the very first round.
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Adil Anwar (14-1, 7 KOs), a typical technician of Pakistani origin, demonstrated all the flaws and all the strengths of his style in a hard-fought three-round decision over former champion Barry Morrison (19-6, 8 KOs) of Scotland. Anwar was annoyingly fast and elusive for traditional Morrision but also landed stinging left hooks and right hands in the third and in the first rounds. Morrision looked tougher and forced Anwar to fight in the second round. After all the scores were rendered, Anwar won on all four of them - 29-28 (twice) and 30-27 - on official card, while BoxingScene also had it 29-28 - for Adil on its unofficial card.
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In what seemed to be, on paper, the preliminary final of the tournament, two undefeated prospects collided to determine whose "O" had got to go. That bitter loser was Dale Miles (12-1, 9 KOs) who produced a thrilling performance and was every bit as tough and as deserving as Tyrone Nurse, who is now 21-0, with 4 KOs, but was stopped on two horrible cuts over both of his eyes.
Nurse was waiting for aggressive Miles to produce some action in the opening round, and the Alterton southpaw didn't make him wait for long as he came right after him. But tricky stylist Nurse was too elusive and too sharp for the slower opponent. He made him miss a lot and clearly took the first one. In the second, Miles was cut over his left eye but marched forward and applied wise bodypunching in non-stop action to hurt Nurse time and again and to slow him down. In a brutal war, Nurse was forced to brawl with a stronger foe and, despite taking much punishment, dished his own damage at the end of the stanza, which was clearly Dale's. However, early in the third Nurse collided heads with Miles, and blood started streamin from his right eye. Referee Victor Loughlin immediately halted the fight, and the waved it off on the advice of the ringside physician.
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In the first quarterfinal of Prizefighter's rather impressive 2012 light welterweight tournament, Mark Lloyd (15-5, 3 KOs) enjoyed a good start, winning the first round of scheduled three, but saw his victory floating away after a late surge by experienced former British champion Young (not actually young at 35) Mutley (30-6, 14 KOs) who edged Lloyd in the second round and confidently outpunched him in the third round. Mutley, working on the outside, and the aggressor in the closing seconds of the fight, cut Lloyd over his right eye and had him on the defensive. Victor Loughlin and John Keane both scored it 30-27 - fot Mutley, while Richie Davis saw it different : 28-29 - for Lloyd. BoxingScene had it 29-28 - also for Mutley, who moved forward after a split decision.
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