Femi Fehintola, Liam Cameron Push Forward in Sheffield
By Terence Dooley
The last time I journeyed over the Pennines to watch Femi Fehintola fight was back in 2006, when Femi challenged Carl Johanneson for the British super-featherweight title over in Barnsley. Fehintola was brave in defeat that night, taking some terrific shots on route to a sixth-round loss.
Fehintola had to show a different kind of bravery at the Town Hall, Sheffield on Saturday when facing Sid Razak over six three-minute rounds. Femi suffered a third-round KO reverse against Ryan Barrett a year ago to this very night; Fehintola has since relocated to a new gym, Gallagher’s Gym in Denton, and had talked a good fight during the course of the week. However, a year layoff, the fact that his punch resistance had seemed shot versus Barrett and the realisation that his career was on the line must have given Femi some pre-fight doubts.
Fehintola (9st 10lb) was flanked by the Manchester Mafia of John and Joe Murray, plus Anthony Crolla, during his walk to the ring, come the first bell his gym mates left the ring leaving Femi facing a determined Razak (also 9st 10lb) and, also, facing up to the one major truism of boxing: a boxer is well and truly alone once the first bell goes.
Femi took a few during the early going, he would later tell me that this was the best thing that could have happened to him, the whacks he took gave him renewed confidence in his ability to hold a shot. He was not just going to sit there and take them, though, and the Bradford-born fighter started rattling off jabs in order to keep Sid, buoyed by a rare recent win against Eddie Meskry in September, off him.
Confidence flowed through Femi’s work as the rounds ticked by, he tapped Sid’s guard then turned hard shots through the gaps left by Sid’s attempted blocks and parries. By the third round there was a bit of style in the work of Femi, he popped off three jabs then rattled home a right uppercut, only for Sid, 36, to fire back with a pair of left hooks. Razak also landed a terrific left hand to the body of Femi, who backed off, allowing Razak to land with a right hand.
Trainer Joe Gallagher had hoped that his man would have to come through a sticky moment or two, he wanted to see if his charge still had the ability to take a clean shot and come through with his own punches.
This moment came in round four, kind of, a pair of hooks to the body, right and left, from Femi prompted a response from Razak, who let fly with a right hand. Fehintola lurched forward, smiling at his opponent as he did so; Sid rushed in, the crowd held its breath, only for Femi to turn his man and land his own right hand, dumping Sid to the canvas for a mandatory eight-count.
In recovering from the shot in time to land a counter, Femi had, in my mind, put some ghosts to rest, and in the process he had answered a few questions for Gallagher. However, Femi later told me that he had slipped as Sid threw his shot, he also claimed that Sid himself had stumbled to the canvas after getting caught on the shoulder by the return right hand.
These events served to tighten Fehintola up in the fifth round. Sid, though, was far from done, he harried Femi, who landed a neat jab to the body and then used the space created to land the same shot, this time to the head of Razak, who was looking for a single, big shot.
It didn’t come, Femi upped his accuracy in the sixth and final round, a pair of jabs set up a left hook. A ringside observer was telling Femi to “Keep discipline”; he should do, as it is an awesome album by King Crimson, one of the best bands ever. Femi had made Sid his subject by the final stages of the fight and there was no complaint when Alexander raised Fehintola’s fist come the final bell. Alexander scored it 60-53 for Fehintola; Boxingscene turned in the same card.
A delighted Fehintola told me that there had been demons in his mind ahead of the fight. They had not surfaced until the first bell rang, at that point Femi had realized that it was a year to the night since that terrible KO loss to Ryan.
Still, that is the past and Femi, 27, enthused about his new training regime, and team, telling BoxingScene.com that Gallagher had given him a ‘bollocking’ for loading up on shots early in the fight. Femi had grunted at times when delivering shots, this provoked a bout of ire from Gallagher, who told his man to get back to the whistling ‘pssh’ of sound, speedy boxing. Manchester already has its own grunter in Ricky Hatton; Gallagher has his own pressure fighter in John Murray; what the trainer wants from Femi is a bit of the old Fehintola – smooth boxing built from the jab up.
The bill kicked off with the pro debut of Sheffield’s Jamie Ward, 20, who took on Nottinghamshire’s Lee Nicholson, 32, over six-twos. Ward (12st 7¾lb) moved impressively throughout the bout but he could not penetrate Nicholson’s (12st 8¼lb) guard often, or hard, enough to push for a stoppage.
Referee Michael Alexander raised Ward’s hand at the final bell, declaring the local man a 60-55 winner; I had Ward by 60-54. Ward had boxed well behind the jab in the early going, he also delivered some meaty hooks with either hand; however, he did not switch his attacks often enough and the crafty Nicholson, now 3-16-2, was able to read Ward as the fight progressed.
Richard Towers (16st) is as tall as 32-year-old Jason Callum (17st 10lb) is wide and the Sheffield-based heavyweight did not make full use of his physical gifts in the early going of their six-twos encounter. Richard, 30, towered over Coventry’s Callum, who looked incredibly fleshy in comparison, but he did not take control of centre ring until the second round.
Once Towers did take ring centre, with the help of some snappy jabs, there was no doubt over the outcome. Callum, though, did land with the odd slapping right, he was trying to turn the shot around the guard of Towers and had mixed success, although it must be said that the shots that did land were more down to lapses in concentration on the part of Richard.
A cut opened up above the right eye of Callum in round two, Jason had suffered a cut-eye stoppage loss to Neil Perkins back in June and looked to be on his way to another TKO defeat. The cut was caused by a slashing left from Towers, who then went to work on the eye, he threw a left hook that landed on the gash and then followed this with a right hand to the body of Jason.
Michael Alexander had a close look at Callum’s cut at the end of round two and decided to let the journeyman come out for the third round. Towers landed a clean left hook on the cut late in the round, after scuffing his shots early, a right hand then sent Callum careening backwards. Jason dabbed at his cut eye, Alexander noticed this and he had no hesitation in accepting Callum’s corner retirement at the end of the third stanza. Towers got the stoppage win and he improves to 5-0 (3 early). Callum is now 3-9-1.
Kyle Whitham (12st 7½lb) was next out to the ring. Kyle, 23, was making his pro bow and he will probably count himself unlucky, as his first-ever pro opponent was the erratic and unorthodox Lee Duncan (12st 7¼lb) who fights out of the Ingles gym.
Kyle, who also boxes out of Sheffield, looked fleshy at the weight but he showed nice skills when he went to work. Duncan, 20, tried to get off with a body shot at the end of the round only to be countered by a short right hand.
Lee’s head movement was non-existent early in the fight but he managed to get his head and body moving in tandem as the rounds wore on. Duncan landed a left uppercut counter in round four, it was the best shot of the fight and it turned the contest on its head.
Duncan’s stabbing, staccato shots bloodied the nose of Whitham in the fifth and there was a real danger that his points lead could be chipped away. Kyle tried to close things out in the final round, a dangerous move in a fight as nip-and-tuck as this one, only for Duncan to, also, try to see the round out, resulting in a tight, and dull, final two-minutes of ‘action’.
Referee Michael Alexander could not split the two at the final bell, he scored it 58-58; I had it 58-56 but could see why Michael had given the draw. Sheffield’s Duncan, now 0-2-1, had oscillated between looking awful and looking dangerous; Kyle had figured out his man in round two only to lose his way in subsequent rounds.
Indeed, Alexander gave Duncan the 4th and 5th rounds and he had given both a share of the 3rd and 6th rounds, meaning that Kyle had started brightly only to fade as the fight wore on.
Finally, there was one more pro debut. Liam Cameron (11st 4lb), who won the 2009 ABA 69kg title, took on the tough Matt Scriven (11st 10¼lb) over six-twos. Although a loser in six of his last seven contests, Scriven is a tough guy and he was coming off a TKO win over Terry Maughan in Nottingham last week.
Class fighters look good even when doing little or nothing and this was the case with Liam, 19, who had a fluidity that you do not often see in a debutant. Scriven, 36, was peppered by jabs early, whacked with right hands as the rounds progressed, including a lovely right uppercut through the middle in round three, and the man from Nottingham was also hit with some hefty shots to the body.
Cameron started the fifth session with purpose, landing a, low, left hook to the body followed by left hook to the head, this shot contributed to a small nick over Scriven’s right eye.
Scriven pressed Cameron a little in the final round only for Liam to move out of range and then spring back with an attempted left uppercut. A brace of hooks to the body, right and left, had Scriven gasping a little and the veteran looked relieved when the final bell rang. Scriven later told us that Cameron did a better job on him than the likes of Billy Joe Saunders and Craig Watson.
The omnipresent Michael Alexander scored the fight to Cameron by 60-54 and you could not argue with that card. Cameron looks to have a huge amount of talent at his disposal, at times it looked like he could press on for the finish but the fighter himself confirmed to me that he will make absolutely sure of success before trying to take people out.
“I enjoyed that,” said Cameron. “Boxing Matt Scriven in my first fight was a tough test. He’s taken on guys like Ashley Theophane and Willie Limond so to beat him by winning every round was good. I landed clean shot and cut his eye, it was dripping blood and I could have gone for it more and stopped him but I want the stoppages to come naturally.
“If the stoppage comes it comes but he was throwing right hands over the top and coming in rough with the head so that showed me that this pro game is a different sport and sometimes you don’t want to rush in for the stoppage.
“When I train I work on everything: movement, hand speed and power. When I get in the ring that training comes in and I can box on the back foot or the front foot. I’m out again in December in Bradford and can’t wait for that. I’ll have a word with my brother now, he said I was crap when I first went into boxing but he might think differently after tonight!”
Promoter Dennis Hobson was also on hand to talk about Liam. The man who took Clinton Woods all the way to a world title believes that Cameron will is a future world champion. “I spoke to Clinton Woods and he said he was impressed by Liam and Femi tonight,” enthused Hobson.
“Liam looked like he had been a pro for a long time, he looked so accomplished and he’s only just turned nineteen! Don’t forget, he’ll get stronger and more seasoned so we have to look at what division will suit him and get him settled there. We want to keep him busy. He’s on a learning curve now but he is miles in front of a lot of pros. I’m just glad that he decided to turn pro with me and join our camp.
“That tonight was Femi’s best performance. He did a cracking job and Joe and Kerry have done well with him. He was a little tense but that is understandable after his year out of the sport. If he can keep improving, and I think he can do, then he’s going to be a contender for titles very soon.
“I’ve been out of the game for a bit but me and Clinton did some massive things and had some great achievements. It was a great story. People forget that Clinton was a proper world champion for three years, look at his record, it is not just WBU titles on that record, Clinton fought, and beat, some of the best. You can’t take that away from us.
“Now it is a new era and we’ve got some good kids coming through. We’ve got Liam, obviously, but we’ve got the likes of Jamie Ward coming through, he is a raw talent and there is a lot to build on. We hope to put some smashing shows on in the coming months.”
Please send news and views to neckodeemus@hotmail.co.uk