By Terence Dooley
Two of Sheffield’s brightest hopes endured their first taste of defeat on the undercard of Jamie McDonnell’s point’s win over Nick Otieno at the Hillsborough Leisure Centre in Sheffield over the weekend. Nicki Smedley and Liam Cameron dropped decisions to Nigel Wright and Erick Ochieng respectively in fights that presented both prospects with plenty of food for thought.
Smedley (140lb) lost his first English title tilt by scores of 93-97, 94-97 and 92-99, finding Wright (140lb) too seasoned over the course of the ten rounds.
Durham’s Wright is on a run of four wins since losing a British and Commonwealth title fight to Ajose Olusegun in 2009, posting wins over Alex Arthur, Dean Harrison, Jamie Speight and Smedley.
Both Speight and Nicki lost their undefeated tags to the southpaw, a clear warning for any other undefeated fighters out there who think that they can use the 31-year-old as a springboard to bigger and better things.
Smedley, however, was taking part in only his fifth fight in the last three years. A slow 2008, inactive 2009 and single outing 2010 not the ideal career trajectory for the 25-year-old switch hitter, who is nicknamed ‘Nightmare’ but caused headaches for himself by utilising a herky-jerky approach against Wright.
Wright moves to 24-6-1 (10), the 1998 ABA 140lb titlist is eying a British title fight at lightweight – calling out British boss Anthony Crolla – as well as further 140lb shots. Smedley can come again; he falls to 14-1 (3) but showed promise when knuckling down to the task late in the fight.
Liam Cameron (157lb) had motored 9-0 (3) before running into Ochieng (156lb) only to lose 74-77 on the scorecard of referee John Foster.
Ironically, Erick had dropped his ‘0’ when losing a point’s decision to Luke Robinson at the York Hal in March. Ken Curtis’ single point card clearly lit a fire under the 24-year-old, who will now bounce into a June 18th meeting with Steve O’Meara, the two meet at York Hall, giving ‘The Eagle’ the perfect opportunity to wipe away memories of the Robinson reverse.
Cameron has showed a lot of class in defeat, congratulating Ochieng, now 7-1 (2), on Facebook and boxing forums. The 6’ tall 2009 ABA welterweight champion is 20-years-old, there is plenty of time for him to bounce back and secure a rematch with Erick.
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