British champion Jamie Moore cemented his status as one of the top light middleweights in Europe with a authoritative victory over determined English titlist Andrew Facey on a Frank Maloney/VIP shared promotion at Robin Park Arena in Wigan, England on Friday. It was the second time that Moore and Facey clashed but on this occasion the challenger from Sheffield stepped it up a notch and pushed the Mancunian hard for the first eight rounds of a scheduled twelve frames.
But by the ninth the champion had succeeded in breaking Facey down, hammering the elusive challenger with big southpaw lefts until Facey was canvassed.
Facey, 19-5-1 (6), beat the count and continued to try and pick off the surging Moore, 28-3 (19), until the eleventh when the British champion dropped his rival repeatedly before finishing off the lanky Midlands man on the ropes at 2:14 of the round.
Moore’s promoter Frank Maloney is close to announcing a European title challenge for Moore, who is reigning champion Zaurbek Baysangurov’s mandatory challenger.
On the undercard, Manchester area welterweight Mark Thompson, 13-1 (7), prevailed in an eight round thriller with France’s Frank Harroche Horta, 10-6-3 (2).
Southpaw Horta was coming off a narrow majority decision loss against two time European champion Frederic Klose just four months ago and the 27 year old Parisian presented Thompson with a very difficult puzzle to solve.
But the Englishman proved his meddle by walking through a hail of leather and forcing the action throughout, picking up a 77-76 points win on the card of referee Phil Edwards.
Commonwealth light welter king Ajose Olusegun, 21-0 (11), made an appearance on the card, stopping overmatched Spaniard Armando Candel, 5-3 (3), in the third as the British based Nigerian stayed sharp awaiting his next title defense.
One of England’s top prospects, welterweight Craig Watson, 11-1 (3), kept on form with a six round points verdict over France’s durable Frederic Gosset, 11-39-2 (3), and remains on the hunt for a high profile showdown with IBF Intercontinental titlist Matthew Hatton.
Liverpool area welterweight Brett Flournoy, 6-0 (2), picked up a solid six round win over hard-nosed Ryan Ashworth, 2-2 (1).
Two other Merseyside residents, featherweight Mark Moran, 7-0-1 (1), and light heavy Carl Dilks, 4-0 (1), kept perfect records with victories over Gavin Reid, 2-1 (1), and Lee Nicholson, 3-10-1 (0), respectively.
Super middle Martin Murray, 2-0 (1), finished off Phillip Callaghan, 0-6-1 (0), in the first and Bobby Rimmer trained Jack Arnfield, 1-0 (1), made his pro debut with a first round destruction of Louis Byrne, 1-3 (1).
Frank Maloney Promotions returns to action on November 23 in Portsmouth, England when British light heavyweight champion Tony Oakey meets nemesis Peter Haymer in a grudge filled rematch to their controversial London clash of 2005.
Tickets will go on sale shortly at www.frankmaloney.com and the Box Office at 0871 226 1508. For any further press information please call 0208 267 7647.