By Lee Collier
Huddersfield’s unbeaten light welterweight prospect Tyrone Nurse extended his unbeaten run to 11 fights undefeated on a three bout fight card promoted by Steve Wood’s VIP Promotions at the Brooklands Hotel in Barnsley which produced some good boxing and entertainment.
Nurse (10st 1lb 9oz) faced Atherton’s Williams Warburton (10st 7lb 6oz) over six threes still looking for his first stoppage after 10 wins whilst Warburton entered the ring with a 1-6-2 (0 KO’s) and fought only seven days after his last fight.
Warburton, who trains out of Joe Pennington’s North Side gym, started the fight by forcing the pace and seemed to be causing the usually fluent Nurse problems. Both fighters had considerable success with Warburton being the busiest of the pair and targeting the Huddersfield fighter’s body.
Early in the second, Warburton was throwing flurries at the body of the lanky Nurse. Nurse was starting to find his timing with some nice counter punching off the back foot but was not busy enough.
As the fight wore on Nurse started to slip most of Warburton’s punches and was countering well, but not enough. Nurse picked up the pace in the fourth round, landing more frequently and with some nice combinations. Warburton was seemingly starting to tire allowing Nurse to have his most successful period of the fight.
Nurse, still looking for his first knock out, was not engaging close in, instead using his superior boxing ability to avoid most of Warburton’s brief replies. In the final round Warburton, sensing he needed a big round, pushed Nurse hard until he ran out of gas allowing Nurse to land some late combinations and to end the fight strongly.
Referee Howard Foster, fresh from his trip to Australia where he refereed the Roy Jones Jr and Danny Green fight, raised the hand of Tyrone Nurse, awarding him the fight by a margin of 58-56. Nurse extends his unbeaten record to 11-0 but will need to improve on this performance if he is to challenge for his first title next year.
Whilst Nurse maintained his unbeaten record he was far from happy with the performance. “I was not happy at all, it was pretty poor performance tonight. I went about it the wrong way,” explained Nurse.
“I was giving away a chunk of weight and should have stuck to boxing but I tried to have a war with a bigger lad. I worked on the right things in training - I just didn’t do it in the fight.”
Nurse seemed to be carrying a cold, which he confirmed when talking about his plans for the next year. “I came down with a cold the last couple of weeks, but I should be out in Blackpool in February and if all goes to plan I can then look at getting a title fight,” declared Nurse.
Rotherham’s Chad Gaynor, now 2-0 (1 KO), faced Wolverhampton’s veteran journeyman Carl Allen, 18-86-7 (5 early), in a fight that was expected to go the full four three minute rounds. Allen (10st 5lb 8oz) had not been stopped in his last 32 outings but Gaynor (9st 13lb 2oz) had every intention of ending the fight early.
Straight from the opening bell Gaynor landed a left hand punch on Allen’s glove, which sent Allen backwards. Gaynor was mixing it up and throwing combinations to both the body and head with Allen responding with the odd punch that Gaynor blocked.
Gaynor then sent Allen to the canvas with a right hook to the head, with the Wolverhampton fighter going down heavily. Allen was up on three and allowed to continue fighting. Gaynor, sensing an early night’s finish, went for the stoppage and, with Allen offering nothing in return, referee Howard Foster stopped the contest with 1:08 of the first round gone. On this performance Gaynor could be one to watch in the future.
Opening the show was 23-year-old debutant Navid Mansouri (11st 4lb), who is trained by Chris Aston. Facing Mansouri over six two minute rounds was local boy Craig Tomes (10st 13lbs) who had a record of 1-10-2 (0 early).
The opening round was a close affair with Mansouri moving smoothly around the ring. Mansouri was the slightly busier fighter. As the fight progressed it developed into an inside fight with Mansouri looking the stronger of the two fighters. Mansouri started to land many telling uppercuts causing Tomes to hang on to stop further punishment.
Tomes pushed forward throughout the fight, landing the occasional jab but Mansouri was breaching Tomes defence on the inside and causing his opponent to hold on. At the end of the third round referee Howard Foster started to take a close look at Tomes, sensing he was starting to take too much punishment.
The fourth round went the same as previous rounds with a brave Tomes trying to take the fight to the debutant. Mansouri though was too strong and in the fifth, with Mansouri launching another unanswered assault on Tomes, referee Howard Foster stopped the contest just as Tomes corner threw the towel in. The time of the stoppage was 0:44 of the fifth round and Mansouri of Rotherham would have been happy with an impressive first fight.