By James Slater: Tonight, in Nottingham, England, the U.K’s Rendall Munroe put on a career-best performance and upset defending European super-bantamweight champion Kiko Martinez. Winning a closely scored contest via a majority verdict, Munroe, who works as a dustbin man by day, put himself in line for some very big paydays. The scores were surprisingly narrow at the end, with the new ruler winning by scores of 115-113 twice and getting a 114-114 draw on the third card.
With a combination of boxing skill, speed and the necessary caution, southpaw Munroe refused to let the big punching Spaniard get set to unload anything heavy. Indeed, Martinez was very much shown up tonight as something of a one trick pony. – if he cannot get a man blasted out of there with his heavy hands, he has no plan-B.
The fight was never a great affair, it must be said, but Munroe will not care about that. Using the right blend of tactics needed to emerge victorious, the underdog never put a foot wrong. Martinez tried to unload, but simply could not get set. Frustration creeping in towards the later rounds, the Spaniard attempted to put new impetus into his work-rate – but it was not enough.
A much bigger winner on this writer’s card than how the judges had it, Munroe looked very good in there at times. While Martinez, expected by many to blow his man away, was a big disappointment. There was no real standout round to speak of, but the new champ looked particularly fast and capable in the 10th, when he pinned Martinez on the ropes for a long period of the session and went to work with his quick hands.
At the end, Martinez looked appropriately despondent, yet shockingly almost kept his title thanks to the strangely tight scoring of the three officials. The right man won, however, and for that we can be thankful.
With the win Munroe improved to 14-1(6). The beaten Martinez fell to 17-1(14).
In the chief under-Card bout, Commonwealth bantamweight champion, Jason Booth made his first defence with a points win over the tough Lante Addy of Accra, Ghana.
Both men came to fight, and a lot of punches were thrown throughout the lively twelve rounder. Booth scored a knockdown at the end of round number three, courtesy of a fine left hook to the head. Addy beat the count well enough, but Booth’s overall class was the key all night. The relatively unknown Addy never stopped trying, however, and did come on quite strong in the last three rounds or so, when the champion became a little ragged.
Booth did box well most through most of the contest – even doing some switch hitting on occasion – and at age 30 he clearly has a lot left to offer his sport, even after having had a more than somewhat tough and hard going career. The scores after 12 good action rounds were 118-110, 117-111 and 118-111.
With the win Booth improved to 29-5(11). Addy dropped to 11-2-1(6).