By Terence Dooley
‘Magic’ Matthew Hatton and David Barnes – both Manchester-based fighters with their eyes on British title shots – kept themselves sharp, or in the case of David Barnes sharpened-up, at the Octagon centre in Sheffield on Sunday by, each, getting six rounds of boxing under their belts.
Matthew, brother of Ricky Hatton, fought the tough Vladimir Borovski over six rounds and handily emerged as a 60-55 point’s winner.
Borovski came into the fight with an air of confidence bordering on the disdainful as he gave Hatton a handful whilst also bloodying the Manchester fighter’s nose.
Borovski boxed with the innate confidence of a man who only gets KO’d by the likes of Jamie Moore and Takaloo, both big light-middleweights. Vladimir is also a short, squat barrel of a man, you get the impression that in order to put him down you would have to flip him on his side and roll him around until the count reaches ten.
By round four the pattern was fairly rigid, when Matt let his shots go then moved a little he looked good only to allow Borovski to swarm forward, robbed of time to think Matthew would get caught by silly shots in close. One such shot caused Matthew to swell slightly on his left eye.
By the fifth Matthew was mixing hooks with straight shots – his style can be aggressive yet when the straight shots were let loose they were far more effective and shot through the guard of his foe.
Matt had wanted to sharpen-up, pre-fight he had told me that he was looking for his opponent to give him rounds, yet he could have done a little more damage if only he had stepped-back and speared Borovski as he came in.
After the fight Matthew told Boxingscene that Borovski had caught him on his eye when the eye was open and this had caused him discomfort. It had been a minor nuisance though and he is now looking forward to fighting in America, his second fight there, when his brother fights Juan Urango for the IBF light-welterweight world title.
Hatton also stated that he would like to be at the British title level after this next fight, he recently fought an eliminator with Alan Bosworth and felt that his loss via DQ (in the final round of a fight he was winning) was unjust, however he intends to crack on in the hope of getting another elimination fight for that title.
A shot at the title proper is long-overdue.
David Barnes is also in the British title hunt; to this end his fight with Vadzim Astapuk was a chance to sharpen his sights ahead of the New Year. Barnes won over sixty rounds by a margin of 60-55 proving that 60-55 is the new 60-54.
David has recently found his career adopting a staccato pattern; this has been a constant source of frustration.
Unfortunately David did not box to the best of his abilities on Sunday; the fight can be best described, kindly described, as a rust-shedder.
To this end David – who throughout waited too long to produce his shots – posed more than punched throughout the early rounds before finally starting to put his punches together in the final two rounds.
In this fight Barnes tended to slip, have a look for a gap then was unwilling or unable to put his shots through when the gap appeared.
Before the fight David had told me he felt slightly nervous, it had been a long time plus he was eager to show Shannon what he can do, that may explain the early posturing.
When David gets going, and it would be great for Manchester boxing if he does, he will certainly be a fighter who – given some decent wins – can be knocking to regain the British title he once held.
The pick of the undercard action featured two notable knockouts.
The first is surely up there amongst the quickest KO’s of all time as Fight Academy hopeful Stuart Brookes absolutely iced Jamie Ambler in fifteen seconds.
Those fifteen seconds included the ten-count by the way.
Stuart came out, he threw a jab, then turned a right hand around the, non-existent it must be said, “guard” of Ambler to leave Ambler on the canvas with less of a chance of beating the count as I had of walking home in time for that afternoons Chelsea-Arsenal match.
Ambler came out and he got knocked-out, it sounds cruel but you have to protect yourself at all times, even at the beginning of the bout.
Brookes improves to 7-0 (3), this was his second first round KO in his past three fights so next time you watch ‘The Bomb’ make sure you do not blink.
The other KO came courtesy of Nicky Smedley who took out Imad Khamis in four rounds. Nicky’s KO is noticeable because you will see him on the undercard of Hatton-Urango in Las Vegas next month and the switch-hitting fighter is certainly worth a look.
Khamis has a style only his mother would love - and she may take some convincing - with this said it no surprise to see him go down to a dubious flash knockdown in the very first round.
Nicky switched hit a bit too much in the early stages and did not commit when he did make the switch, it seemed to be developing into a clash of two awkward southpaws and a non-committal orthodox fighter yet when the end came Nicky showed his class.
In the fourth Nicky missed a shot, feinted and then nailed Imad with a sweet right hand to put Khamis down legitimately. I liked the way Nicky dipped his shoulders before unleashing the right hand, he did Khamis up, and had him sleeping, like a kipper with that little bit of shoulder movement.
Imad could not cope as Nicky’s class rose; despite rising to beat the count Imad was overwhelmed by a follow-up attack which saw the referee stop the fight after 1:22 of the fourth round.
I spoke to Nicky after the fight; he had beaten an awkward fighter and was happy to have dug out the stoppage win. His bout in Las Vegas on the undercard of a big fight must be dream come true and as long as Nicky makes sure his switch-hitting serves a purpose, as it did when he finished this fight, then he will have a good night on January the twentieth.
For the record Ricky Hatton was working his brother’s corner and, as suspected by many, tells of weight extremity were premature. Ricky has dropped a lot of weight and looked right on target for his January tango with Urango.