By Nate Anderson: Former BBBofC British and World Boxing Union lightweight champion Graham Earl (25-4, 12 KOs) was destroyed in the 1st round on Friday night against Henry Castle (19-4, 11 KOs) at the York Hall, Bethnal Green, in London. Earl, 30, never really stood a chance as he was blasted with hard combinations from Castle at the start of the bout, and seconds into the fight, Earl was put down with a perfect left-right combination to the head. Earl got up but took nonstop punishment until the referee Jeff Hinds stepped in and stopped the bout at 1:09 with Earl backed up against the ropes and being unloaded on by Castle. This was Earl’s second consecutive 1st round knockout and third loss in a row.
Earl did look right entering the ring, having the look of a deer frozen in the headlights of a large truck. For whatever reason, he seemed not to be into the fight and not mentally prepared to engage in battle with the hard punching Castle. Given his last loss, a first round TKO at the hands of Amir Khan, Earl appeared to be doing himself no favors by choosing the aggressive Castle as his first opponent after such a disappointing loss.
Castle, perhaps wanting to take advantage of Earl’s lack of confidence, came out hard at the start of the fight, going right after him and hitting him with huge shots one after another. Seconds later, Earl went down after getting hit with a good left hook followed by a chopping right hand. The left hook did most of the damage, connecting cleanly and snapping Earl’s head back.
After landing that shot, Castle probably could have finished the job by hitting him with pretty much anything because Earl was clearly hurt by the punch. After getting up, Earl chose not to clinch or cover up, instead trying to fire pack with punches of his own, as if his knockdown was a fluke.
He must not have been thinking clearly, because was indeed hurt and should have been trying to escape the round anyway possible. With Earl coming right at him, Castle didn’t have to go looking for him to try and land more big shots, because Earl was right there, hands down much of the time, and trying to engage with him. Castle than landed several right hands to the head, and then a flurry of punches, backing Earl to the ropes where he teed off on him briefly, his last punch a big left hand that landed with a lot of force. Seeing that Earl was near defenseless, referee Jeff Hind moved in and halted the fight at 1:09 of the first round.
The loss, a bitter blow for Earl’s once promising career, would seem to suggest that he needs to consider either retiring from boxing or moving out of the lightweight division. He hasn’t looked competitive in awhile and has been stopped three consecutive times, starting with knockout artist Michael Katsidis in February 2007. Earl might be able to make super featherweight if he loses a little weight, but it’s questionable how well he’d do at that level.
In other action, heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo (1-0, 1 KOs), making his pro debut, stopped Vlado Szabo (2-34) in the 1st round of a scheduled four round bout. Olubamiwo, 29, who’s built a lot like former heavyweight contender Ike Ibeabutchi, hit Szabo, 33, with clubbing right hands in the first round, hurting him with a big right to the head. After getting him in trouble, Olubamiwo landed two more big right hands that sent Szabo face down on the canvas.
The fight was stopped once it was apparent that Szabo was in no condition to continue fighting. For the most part, Olubamiwo looked decent. He has good power to go with his heavily muscled physique, but his hand speed is atrocious as is his defense. He was hit by quite a few right hands from Szabo at the start of the fight and was backed up by him.
For a moment there, I wasn’t sure that whether it was going to be Szabo or Olubamiwo who would be coming out the winner in the fight. However, Szabo’s defense was poor enough so that Olubamiwo was able to land a couple hard thudding right hands that hurt Szabo badly. Olubamiwo then finished him off with two more right hands. The fight was stopped at 1:39 by referee Jeff Hinds.
To top off a night of terrible mismatches, heavyweight David Ingleby (6-22-1, 4 KOs) stopped 6’8” Dave Howe (1-1, 1 KOs) in the 1st round. Howe, 28, looked good in the opening seconds of the fight, jumping on Ingleby and tagging him with a flurry of shots. However, when Howe let up for a second, Ingleby hit him with a jab and then a big left-right combination to send him down. He then dropped him one more time with another combination. After the second knockdown, the fight was stopped by referee Jeff Linds at 1:02 of the 1st.
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