By Elliot Foster

Macaulay McGowan and Jez Smith served up something of a small-hall classic.

The pair met in an eight-round contest at Harrow Leisure Centre, exclusively live on BoxNation.

McGowan, from Arnie Farnell’s gym in Ellesmere Port, was down in the first half of the fight from a big shot by Smith, but rallied and, on my card, just edged it.

But Jeff Hinds, who was the third man in the ring and the arbiter in the situation, disagreed, scoring it a draw.

He handed in a scorecard of 76 points each and the pair, who boxed on the undercard of the final eliminator for José Pedraza’s IBF super-featherweight title between Liam Walsh and Andrey Klimov, will prepare to do battle in a return clash after eight rounds of toe-to-toe back-and-forth action which fans stood and applauded throughout.

And Smith, who was in his own back yard tonight, has no qualms about heading to the North West to face McGowan again.

“He [Macaulay McGowan] came here,” Smith, now 7-0-1 (3 KOs) told BoxNation in the post-fight interview, “so let’s go to Manchester for the rematch.”

McGowan, who is now 10-0-1 (1 KO), is eager for the rematch, saying that his fans will be up for it and that he thought, as did Smith, he did enough to have his hand raised at the end.

Elsewhere, Boy Jones Jr. warmed up for his clash for the vacant Southern Area super-featherweight title with a stoppage.

The 19-year-old, from Chingford, improves to 10-0-1 (7 KOs) with a sixth-round stoppage over Tamas Laska, who had his gumshield out about a million times –– more like seven or eight, really –– and he will now go on to fight Martin Hillman for the Area belt on November 25 at Brentwood Centre in Essex.

Sammy McNess impressed ridiculously as he moved to 6-0 with a devastating demolition of the usually-durable Sam Omidi, who went into the fight with a winning record.

McNess, 24, campaigns at super-welterweight and will now be looking towards titles in the near future after a sensational showing, which ended after 30 seconds of the second round, against a man who slips to 4-4-1 in defeat.

And DP Carr produced a scintillating three-knockdown first-round stoppage over Elemir Rafael, the Slovakian who is now 0-41 in British rings, as he moved to 6-0.

‘The Cannon’, 26, now has four early endings on his ledger, while veteran Rafael, 31, dropped to 34-105-4 (9 KOs).