Karl Place Reflects on The Win Over Michael Grant, More
By Terence Dooley
Manchester’s Karl Place moved to 14-0 (8) with a six-round decision win over Enfield’s Michael Grant, now 13-3-1 (1), at the Olympia, Liverpool on Saturday night. Referee Howard Foster scored the bout 58-56 in favour of the 22-year-old prospect. Place could meet experienced campaigner Nigel Wright in his next contest as he bids to gatecrash the domestic light-welterweight title scene.
“I beat him (Grant) in a good style, no one has beaten him in that style before and it was a good step up. He came and gave a good fight, respect to him,” said Place when speaking to frankmaloney.com.
“He is my best opponent up to now. I’d have liked it to have gone more rounds to be honest because I think I hurt him in the final rounds and would have stopped him (had it gone longer).”
“[Trainer] Steve [Maylett] has already picked on so many things from tonight. You never have the perfect fight so there are always things to learn.”
“I think I can beat anyone. I would put myself in there with all of them. That [Wright] fight has been mentioned, if it happens then it happens,” said Place as he looked ahead to his next domestic challenge.
Maylett is a perfectionist, once telling me that he watches Place with an eagle eye to ensure that he improves after every fight. Indeed, Maylett spent the days leading into the contest working on Karl’s footwork. “We worked on little foot feints in his last few spars so he’s adding to his boxing all the time,” confirmed Maylett.
“I saw Karl as an amateur and I like to pick faults out in people when I watch them box. Karl was a bit over-aggressive and over-keen (as an amateur). I could see that he had the skills there but had gone off them a bit, as he was so strong. We knew he could punch but took him back to the skills, starting with his footwork and defence. We got a bad decision in the ABAs [in 2008] so decided to go for it and turned him pro,” revealed Maylett when we last spoke.
Place helped fellow Mancunian Michael Gomez prepare for his 2008 Commonwealth lightweight title challenge to Amir Khan. ‘Bulb Head’ discussed the sessions with me during our last interview, confirming that he had learned a lot during these rounds.
“Michael Gomez was a guy I rated when he was younger. In his day he was a really good fighter. Even when I sparred him he kept coming and coming. This gives you maturity because you are made to realise how hard boxing can be,” revealed Place.
“Sparring with Gomez got me ready for [fifth professional opponent] Jamie Spence who came out guns blazing – I stayed cool and did Spence in two rounds,” he declared.
He added: “Top sparring is what you need. We box title-level guys in sparring and that makes it easier in the fights. You have to get all the work in now so that it is all there when you are older and when you come into those hard fights.”
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