By Ezio Prapotnich – There is more to boxing than meet the eye and the most damaging punches are not always the most eye-catching. It was youth against experience last night at York Hall, when 26 years old Steve Williams (9-1) challenged Lenny Daws (30-8) for the British Light-Welterweight title. For the first 3 rounds, the younger man was also the busier. At the opening bell, Steve sprang out of the corner and opened up fast, successful with hooks to both body and head. He took the initiative in the next 2 rounds as well, boxing on the front foot and creating a war of attrition. It was in the 4th that Daws started looking like the champion and turned the tide his own way connecting with effective hooks and 1-2s. To his credit, Williams never slowed down the pace but in the midst of all the exchanges, Daws countered well landing the more telling punches. At the end of the 5th, Steve had a nasty cut underneath the left eye and one could sense the fight would not go the distance. Gradually taking over, Daws aimed his shots carefully picking Williams at ease, although the latter never stopped coming forward and they were still going toe to toe in the 10th. In the interval before the 11th, due to the blood still pouring underneath the eye, his own corner pulled Steve out of a fight that, may be, came a bit too soon in his career, but there was no shame whatsoever in this defeat.
Former Light-Middleweight Commonwealth champion Bradley Pryce (30-8), now campaigning at Welterweight, did not waste time in disposing of former European Light-Welterweight champion Ted Bami (27-6).. After a cagey first, where he did all the scoring by jabbing and landing one uppercut, Ted seemed to be in control for most of the second, still jabbing consistently and scoring to the body, until Bradley connected with a straight right and followed up with an arsenal of punches to head and body to knock Bami down in his corner, where the referee stopped the fight at the very end of the round.
It took former European and Commonwealth Heavyweight champion Matt Skelton 3 rounds more to get to a similar conclusion against former Midlands Area Champion Lee Swaby (25-28-2). In a one-sided affair, Skelton thoroughly dominated the fight, keeping Swaby constantly on the ropes and bashing him with every punch in the book, and it was one way traffic. Often, during the fight, Lee let his arms hanging down the side defiantly, inviting his opponent in. Unluckily for him, Matt politely accepted the invitation at every occasion until he produced a thunderous right hook to the body that knocked Swaby down forcing the referee to stop the fight at 1:00 of the 5th.
Prizefighter Light-Middleweight champion Prince Arron (19-3-1) dealt with Tony Randell (11-23-2) in similar fashion. From the beginning, Arron put his long jab, naturally his best asset, to work dictating the pace and piling up points without getting too involved, with Tony having a hard time trying to get inside. After 3 relatively uneventful rounds, Randell got more aggressive and forced the fight, but, in the process, the Prince managed to knock him down. It was now just a matter of time. Although surviving the 5th, Tony looked in big trouble at the beginning of the 6th where Arron threw everything at him till they both fell on the canvas, one on top of the other, no knockdown called. Eventually, Randell caught one 1-2 too many and the referee halted the action at 2:08.
In another one sided affair, former Prizefighter Welterweight champion (17-3-1) Michael Lomax (17-3-1), displaying good defense, speed, and technique, managed to frustrate his opponent Stephen Okine (11-10-1) and win a 59-55 decision, in spite of a nasty cut from a clash of head in the 6th.
Worth mentioning Chris Evangelou fast-paced performance against the very brave and resilient Aaron Fox (0-5-1), that saw him stretching his unbeaten record to 4-0.
On the same card, Gregor Proska (22-0) stopped Alex Spitko (7-28-0) at 1:54 of the 4th round while George Hillyard (10-5-1) won a 59-57 decision against Keiron Gray (5-3) in 2 scheduled 6×3 bouts at Middleweight.