By Terence Dooley

Rotherham — Hometown fighter Navid Mansouri and Sheffield’s Sam Sheedy have been as active as a jaded pair of sloths in recent times.
 
Mansouri (10st 12lbs 12oz) fought in March, a fifth round TKO over Gary Boulden, but only had one outing in 2014, defending his English light-middleweight title against Matthew Mallin (TKO 5 in February of that year in a rematch after the two drew in October 2013 when a clash of heads in round one curtailed their English title fight).
 
Sheedy (10st 12lbs 6oz) boxed in April (W 10 over Nodair Robakidze) following a stop start 2014; he beat Samet Hyuseinov and Bradley Pryce in March and November of that year (both W8).  His southpaw style is harder to read than Fifty Shades Of Gray, befuddling the title-holder throughout.
 
By round five, both men were giving and taking blows, but Sheedy looked the more comfortable of the two; the 27-year-old came in with an unbeaten record and an air of confidence.
 
Mansouri, 26, had only tasted defeat once, a loss to tough journeyman Terry Carruthers in 2012’s Prizefighter: Light-Middleweight semi-final—Larry Ekundayo stopped Carruthers at 2:36 of the third and final round to grab the tournament win.
 
Despite, or maybe due to, his speedy start, Sheedy’s boxing lost cohesion as the fight ticked on.  By the tenth and final round, he looked ragged yet still tried to launch his own attacks.
 
It was a hard night for both men, but an easy one for referee Phil Edwards, who had little to do during a fairly fought contest.
 
Dennis Hobson, the show’s promoter, said “It was a good fight” when he entered the ring after the contest, which was won by Mansouri courtesy of scores of 94-97, 97-94 and 96-95 from Michael Alexander, John Latham and Terry O’Connor respectively.  BoxingScene had it for Sheedy by three rounds.
 
In truth, it looked a clear win for Sheedy (15-1, 3 stoppages) and a loss for the reigning titlist.  It was a good fight, another good night of British boxing, but another set of mixed scorecards and a bemusing result—Sheedy deserved the win.
 
Mansouri moves to 15-1-2 (5).
 
“That was an awful decision,” said Glenn McCrory, Spike’s pundit.  “My score was 98-93, which to be honest was a little bit kind to Mansouri.”
 
“It was a great fight,” said Mansouri.  “I expected it to be easier.  Sam showed a lot of heart.  I really enjoyed myself.  All respect to their and my team.  I knew I was scoring, and he was as well, but I felt I was putting the pressure on.”
 
“I’m not going to argue with the decision, I’m not a sore loser,” stated Sheedy.  “Hopefully he’ll give me the rematch.  I really enjoyed it.  I’m not bothered—it was such a good fight.”