By Terence Dooley
Carl Dilks, 25, was left devastated back in February after losing to Darren Stubbs in the semi-final of the light-heavyweight Prizefighter tournament. The Liverpudlian light-heavyweight then reeled off two wins and he brought that good form into Saturday’s night International Masters title showdown with Sheffield’s Billy Boyle, 33, at the Robin Park Centre, Wigan.
Boyle’s free-swinging style has been figured out in recent fights. Both Tony Oakey – in the first stage of the Prizefighter tournament that also featured Dilks – and Nathan Cleverly have defeated Boyle in recent months, leaving him with nowhere left to go should he lose to Dilks.
Dilks (12st 6lb) had to weather some rough moments during the course of this scheduled ten-rounder. Boyle (12st 4lb) boxed like a demented gibbon in the early going. Billy was crude and wide with his shots but they were delivered with such frequency that Dilks was unable to uncork his own jab.
Dilks would slip a shot, turn his shoulder and load up a left hook, only for Boyle to put Carl off with an overhand right or looping left hook. It was god-awful stuff from Boyle but there was enough danger in his swings to keep Dilks on the back foot for much of the early action.
Dilks finally got some of his boxing going in the middle rounds, flipping left hooks through the open guard of Boyle, who had thrown a huge amount of shots in the first four rounds and was now starting to feel the pace. As Boyle’s output dipped, Dilks was given the chance to thread his shots through and he did so for the remainder of the fight.
Despite contending with a bloody nose and Boyle’s wild rushes, Dilks boxed well during the final stages of the contest; using his smooth boxing skills to carry the last three rounds on the scorecard of referee Steve Gray – who declared Carl the winner by a margin of 99-93. Gray gave Boyle a share of the fourth and sixth rounds but it was all Dilks from the seventh onwards. I had it a little closer at 97-93.
It had been an agricultural night’s work for Dilks, now 13-1 (4), who did not like fighting at the pace set by Boyle, who drops to 12-3 (7).
However, what goes up must come down and Boyle’s pace was doomed to dip, allowing Carl to take control of the action. The mix of boxing and brawling thrilled both sets of fans; they went bonkers during the last few rounds of this hectic fight.
Overall, there had been action enough to send everyone home happy, including Dilks, who told me that he had expected Boyle to rush him in the early rounds. “I’m a bit stiff and sore now,” laughed Dilks when talking on the phone the day after the fight.
“I knew he’d come at me because he had to come and try and knock me out. After the first few rounds I was thinking ‘Bloody hell, I hope he doesn’t keep this up for the ten rounds’.”
He continued: “We had a gameplan, we knew that he would do what he did. I was trying to keep him at range to get my boxing skills off but he was very strong. When I threw the jab – even though it landed – he would come right through it. Then he started to tire and I used my feet more and ran away with it. I thought I’d won by three or four rounds going into the final round. I was pulling away with it from the seventh.
“The disappointment was there from Prizefighter but it has done me good as well, the controversy was good for my profile but I was disappointed at the time of that loss. This title win more than makes up for that and I can now drop down to super-middleweight and look for titles there. I’m looking to fight in December and want to go for the English super-middleweight title early next year if possible.”
Tony Bellew had called out Dilks prior to this fight. Dilks allegedly told a radio show host that he and Courtney Fry are the top two Liverpool light-heavyweight’s. Tony wants to set the record straight. However, Dilks is due to step down in weight and he told Bellew that he would have to do the same thing in order to make the fight a reality.
“Fight Tony at light-heavyweight? No,” declared Dilks. “Tony can drop down to super-middle and there’d by no problems with the fight. He is going back to when I was on the radio with Courtney Fry but that was nearly a year ago so I can’t really remember what I said – I’m surprised he remembers himself.”
Jon Kays, 26, had a four-round run-out against Anthony Hannah, 34, on the undercard of Dilk’s title win. The Ashton fighter had been promised a rematch with Craig Johnson – the only man to defeat him as a pro – and Jon earned the return match by out-boxing Hannah over four rounds.
Kays, now 9-1 (2), is getting back to the boxing and moving style that had impressed so many people during his earlier fights. Jon (9st 7lb) has been easier to hit of late and this laxness in defence cost him the Johnson fight. There were to be no mistakes against Hannah, though, as Jon moved, jabbed and brought over enough heavy artillery to keep Hannah in his shell. Hannah (9st 9lb) drops to 22-86-8 (8).
Kays won 40-36 on the scorecard of referee Steve Gray. A delighted Kays then confirmed that his next fight would be a rematch with Johnson in Huddersfield on the 31st of October, with the vacant British Masters super-featherweight title on the line.
“Yeah, my next fight is the rematch with Johnson so I put a boxing display on tonight,” confirmed Kays.
“I needed that workout to get the rust off as I’d not fought since May and need to be sharp in October. We call that ‘sexy boxing’ in the gym: when you box and move around ring centre setting him up for the shots and getting the power when you deliver them. That is what I did tonight.”
He continued: “I want to improve on that performance and win a belt. My next one is a big fight for me. I’m down in weight and I’m going to work on my strength over the next seven weeks. If I box like I boxed tonight I don’t think Craig Johnson will be able to handle me. [Trainer] Bobby [Rimmer] phoned me about the [Craig Johnson] fight and I told him to take it. I can beat that kid, training wasn’t right for the first one but I’m in a new camp now and am confident about getting the revenge win.”
In other action Lee Noble (11st 6lb) pushed Jack Arnfield (11st 6lb) to the wire in a four round encounter. Noble, 22, made a mockery of the height advantage enjoyed by Arnfield, 20, who made a furious start to the contest.
However, by the second round Lee was taking the fight to Arnfield, landing a solid right uppercut to the belly of his huge foe (Jack stands tall at 6’ 2’’). Jack, however, can fight on the back foot and he did this for the majority of the fight, when he did step inside he traded well with Noble, landing short hooks and uppercuts on the inside.
Noble’s effective aggression seemed to be taking the fight away from Arnfield only for Jack to fight back with a right uppercut and left hook in round three. Too often, though, Arnfield would move backwards with his arms low and his elbows wide, presenting Noble with a free shot to the ribs. Lee took those shots well.
Arnfield was feeling the effects in the final round; he elected to go toe-to-toe with Noble in order to stamp his mark on the contest. It went to the wire with Arnfield’s final-round work carrying him to a win on the scorecard of Michael Alexander, who scored it 40-37. Boxingscene scored it closer at 38-38, with Arnfield coming though at the right times to take the crucial rounds and improve his slate to 11-0 (3). Noble falls to 10-11 (2).
Finally, Nick Quigley ran out a 40-36 winner over the game but overmatched Carl Allen and Stephen Jennings made a quick night’s work out of Henry Janes, who was taken out in a single round by some terrific body punching.
Action from Saturday’s bill can be viewed on www.vipboxing.tv