GLASGOW, Scotland – The debutant Alex Arthur Jnr, son of Scottish star Alex Arthur – a former WBO champion at junior lightweight – opened his career at light heavyweight, weighing a well-muscled 171lbs at Friday’s weigh-in. He defeated London’s Robbie Chapman, 13-50-9 (2 KOs), over four rounds by 40-36.
The tall southpaw Arthur scored with a strong left to the body early on, and moments after crashed in a left hook-left uppercut.
Chapman was almost instantly forced to cut a very defensive figure, with the debutant menacing throughout.
The trainer Adam Booth was working Arthur’s corner, because the young fighter’s dad had not been licensed in time.
A left hand near the bell to end the second caused Chapman to hold but Arthur exhibited good patience when there must have been a temptation to force matters.
In the third Arthur he regardless went through the gears and demonstrated promising variety and ability. He was dangerous in close and at range, and he has the ability to thread uppercuts inside through small gaps.
Chapman tried a few veteran tricks, bringing his arm out to the side to distract the 23-year-old Arthur, and back-peddling to the ropes to sucker Arthur on to a right hand, but there was never a hint that the direction of the contest would turn.
Chapman, 31, earned his money as Arthur’s sharpness also earned him the fourth and final round.
Drew Limond, just 19 years of age, and the son of the late Willie Limond – a very good fighter in his own right who fought the likes of Arthur Snr, Erik Morales and Amir Khan – is moved to 4-0 (1 KO) by defeating the Spain-based Argentinian Ezequiel Gregores, who is 3-22 and 31 years old, at junior middleweight.
There were spells when Limond looked frustrated by Gregores' smothering and falling in but the Scot kept persisting behind a useful jab.
Limond also put more into his shots in the third, succeeding with a right to the head and a left hook to the body – one of his dad’s pet shots.
A left hook brought a nod from Georges, but Limond was guilty of loading up too much in the last and Georges implored him to come at him harder with neither able to put a dent in the other. Kevin McIntyre scored it 40-36 for Limond.
The middleweight Aston Brown, a friend of bill-topper Josh Taylor, scored the win of his career in capturing the Scottish middleweight title via a first-round stoppage of Reece Porter.
There had been a competitive rivalry between the two Glasgow boxers, but Brown, 8-0 (3 KOs), couldn’t miss with the right hand, flooring Porter with it on three separate occasions within the 108 seconds the contest lasted.
They came out slugging and the 34-year-old Brown drilled Porter with a right hand and down he went in the opening exchanges. Brown went looking for the right hand again, and then landed and floored him again with an overhand right and then, with Porter fighting back – desperately trying to land something big – Brown uncorked another right hand that closed the show.
Porter lost for the first time to move to 5-1 (3 KOs).