By Jim Dower: Welterweight project Barrie Jones (16-3, 7 KOs) defeated journeyman Jay Morris (9-13-1, 7 KOs) by a four round decision tonight at the Oasis Leisure Centre, Swindon, in Wiltshire. Jones, 23, won by a referee’s decision 40-36. Both fighters were sloppy through much of the fight, missing many of their punches and clinching often in a messy fight. Jones, however, kept his jab moving long enough to win every round against the stumbling Morris.
Morris, a southpaw, controlled the first round using his lab to keep Morris at bay. Frequently during the round, Morris would lunge in and miss with a shot, and immediately grab Jones in a clinch. The clinching became almost as frequent as the punches, with Morris continuing to punch while holding onto Jones.
The referee had his hands full constantly having to break the pair up and separate them to get some action going. Jones was able to get some space near the end of the round and land some nice jabs.
In the 2nd round, Jones landed well with combinations in the first minute of action, using movement to keep Morris from clinching him quite so often. Morris, however, resumed his missing and clinching after the first minute, turning the rest of the round into an ugly, barely watchable round filled with stumbling around, missed punches and a whole lot of clinching.
Jones one it based on him being the only one capable of landing a punch, but Morris made it tough on him by grabbing him all the time. The fight reminded me somewhat of Ricky Hatton’s fight with Kostya Tszyu, with Ricky playing the part of Morris.
In the 3rd, Morris didn’t clinch and wrestle quite as often as he did in the first two rounds, but that was only because Jones stayed on the outside, moving and jabbing and not letting Morris grab him with his clinging arms. Jones was able to land a few combinations and a lot of jabs in the round and easily won it.
The 4th round was all Jones, as he jabbed often, landing a handful of combinations and keeping out of range of Morris. For his part, Morris did practically nothing in the round except for following Jones around and taking hard jabs to the head.
Although Jones won the fight, he looked bad, really bad, showing very little hand speed, power or anything that I could consider good enough skills to make him a potential contender some day.