By Nate Anderson: Undefeated light heavyweight prospect Tony Ballew (7-0, 4 KOs) put in a good performance on Friday night, defeating the iron-chin Jevgenijs Andrejevs (8-24, 2 KOs) by a four-round decision at the Everton Park Sports Centre, Liverpool, in Merseyside. Bellew, 25, a former three time ABA heavyweight champion, fought well throughout the four-round bout, using his 6’2” height and reach advantage to control the distance over the shorter Andrejevs. However, in the 4th round, Ballew was knocked by a left hand to his chest, which caught him off balance, knocking him to the canvas.
Ballew was unhurt, however, and finished strong, continuing his mastery over the slower, limited Andrejevs. Ballew controlled the first round using hard right hooks to the midsection and long jabs. He tended to load up on his shots, making big exaggerated moves when going to the body. Early in the first round, Andrejevs ran forward trying to throw a big haymaker left hand but missed and fell into the ropes. Bellew then tagged him with two rights while he was helpless for a moment. Bellew continued fighting well in the 2nd round, jabbing Andrejevs repeatedly and throwing hard shots to his midsection with both hands.
By the end of the round, Andrejevs’ nose was bleeding. He appeared angered by Bellew loading up on his shots, however, and at one point hit him with an odd looking double cuff to the ears. I’ve never seen anything quite like this before in professional boxing, and it looked quite unusual, like a move an amateur off the street, without any training, would do. Bellew quickly paid him back with two hard rights and a left to the body.
At the end of the round, Andrejevs landed a punch just after the bell sounded. In the 4th round, Bellew looked good up until he got caught with a left hand to the chest, knocking him to the canvas. He probably should have seen it coming, because Andrejevs looked like he meant business and was hoping to score a knockout considering he was so far behind in the fight. Bellew got up and was no worse for the wear and continued out-boxing Andrejevs for the remainder of the round.
In other action, undefeated light middleweight prospect Denton Vassell (9-0, 4 KOs) stopped Alexandres Spitko (4-8, 3 KOs) in the 3rd round of a scheduled six round bout. Vassell, 24, a former 2006 ABA welterweight champion, knocked down Spitko with a left to the body in the 3rd round. Spitko, 22, was in too much pain to make beat the count, however, and the fight was then stopped by referee Phil Edwards at 3:07 of the 3rd.
Vassell fought well in the first round, throwing hard body shots. Spitko fought well in the round, much better than his rather ordinary record would indicate. He didn’t have the punching power or the boxing skills of Vassell, that was clear almost immediately, but he fought fired back with hard shots when hit by Vassell. In the second round, Vassell threw a lot of combinations to the head and mixed in some good shots to the body. Vassell continued throwing well to the body in the third round, backing Spitko up to the ropes with big shots.
While he had him near the ropes, Vassell fired off a double left to the head and body, the latter shot causing Spitko to back up, clutch his midsection, grimace in pain and go down. He tried getting up but was in too much pain to continue. The fight was then stopped by referee Phil Edwards.