Stephen Smith Drills Jones in One, Sexton Wins Decision

By Alexey Sukachev

The Troxy, Limehouse, London - Stephen Smith (14-1, 8 KOs) returned to England after a first-round TKO win in Germany on the Klitschko-Chisora undercard -  and his comeback was nothing short of sensational!

Smith, a former BBBofC British and Commonwealth featherweight titleholder who was stopped by Lee Selby in September 2011, started his collision versus veteran contender Ben Jones (12-3-1, 4 KOs) slowly and was soon tagged by a couple of hard jabs by Jones. However, Smith immediately regroupped and got back to Jones with an unusual fire. The Liverpudlian weakened Jones with damaging body blows and then finished him off at the ropes with three consecutive right swings. Jones went down face first, and referee Richie Davies immediately waved the bout off at approximately 1:21 of the very first round. Smith acquired the vacant WBO I/C super featherweight belt in this fight but his ultimate goal is a rematch with Lee Selby in future.

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In a co-main event, former flyweight and now bantamweight Ashley Sexton (12-0-2, 5 KOs) moved a bit closer to a shot at a national, European or even a world title after a close and hard-fought eight-round decision over determned Frenchman Thomas Masson (7-2-1, 2 KOs).

Sexton started the fight particularly strong, landing some vicious shots early into the first. Masson, hidden behind a tight guard, was momentarily rocked with a left hook in the first. As the rounds passed by, Masson, who wasn't wobbled by any of punches from his counterpart, became more and more aggressive, and in the last part of the fight he was the more active of the two. However, a lack of dynamite in his gloves proved to be crucial, because Sexton landed the cleaner and harder punches. BoxingScene scored it 78-74 - for the British boxer.

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Former amateur standout Dillian White (5-0, 2 KOs) notched another victory in the paid ranks, destroying incapable Bulgarian heavyweight Kristian Kirilov (2-1-1) in the very first round. A huge right overhand haymaker put the Bulgarian down into the second minute of the bout. Kirilov managed to get up but was in no position to continue as referee Jeff Hinds waved the fight off at 1:33.

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Undercard results:

Dan Woodgate (6-1, 1 KO) PTS 6 Jevgenijs Andreevs (6-42, 1 KO)
Johnny Garton (3-0) PTS 4 Liam Griffiths (1-8). The sole score was 40-36.
Moses Matovu (3-13-3) PTS 4 Irv Pascal (1-1, 1 KO)
Jack Morris (7-1, 2 KOs) TKO 2 Egidijus Kakstys (2-6, 1 KO)

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