By Ian Aldous @ ringside Getting straight down to business, reigning IBF featherweight world champion Kid Galahad put his punches together perfectly, and even rocked Kiko Martinez with a straight left in the very first round.
He continued in the second switch-hitting with ease. The veteran Spaniard was struggling to stay away from Galahad’s jab. Kiko’s urgency heightened in the fourth with sporadic shots scoring.
A huge right hand hit the target in the dying embers of the fifth to drop Galahad and shock the crowd. Martinez landed another in the opening seconds of the sixth to flatten the champion and shock the world. In his 55th pro bout, Martinez becomes a two-weight world champion.
Starting extremely well on enemy territory, Alycia Baumgardner made a bright start in her hope of dethroning IBO & WBC world champion, Terri Harper.
The champion was wobbled and hurt in the second from a couple of clean rights and lefts. Harper’s timing seemed off, but she recovered and composed herself in the third.
Then stunningly, early in the fourth round, a right hand counter appeared to knock out Harper on her feet. Unable to defend herself, the referee saved her from more punishment. Alycia Baumgardner is the new IBO & WBC super-featherweight world champion.
Resembling more of a wrestling match than a fight, Dylan Bregeon ended up with a badly cut ear by the end of the second round, against Chris Billam-Smith.
The Frenchman aimed to hold and spoil to stunt Billam-Smith’s jab. It made for a bit of a bore-fest, to say the least. The defending European champion moved up a gear in the sixth and was starting to dominate and landed his best punches at the end of the ninth.
‘The Gentleman’ was able to break through the challenger’s guard but was unable to hurt him, where I feel sure many other cruiserweights would have wilted.
He didn’t wobble once and showed tremendous heart to make it to the final bell. Scores of 120-109, 119-109 (twice) saw Billam-Smith retain his EBU championship.
After a quiet first round, highly-rated Donte Dixon’s crisp left hand went to work in the second round landing hooks flush to Jordy McCorry’s chin and body.
The aggressive Scot had more success in the third, but Dixon was always looking to time counter shots. The pace slowed for a couple of rounds before McCorry suffered a torrid fifth against the hand speed of Sheffield’s Dixon.
He decked McCorry – who was also docked a point for pushing Dixon to the canvas – in the sixth with a body shot and neared closer to the stoppage. However, the Scotsman proved his mettle and saw the final bell. 21-year-old Dixon remains undefeated with a 77-73 points success.
Out of the southpaw stance, Dom Hunt began his ten-rounder against James Flint in impressive fashion. His southpaw backhand scored with regularity in the early rounds of this clash between two undefeated prospects.
Flint’s facial features were reddened by the fourth and he was clearly trailing on points as the fight progressed, forced back to the ropes constantly.
He would land occasional counter hooks, but Hunt was beating him up. A familiar pattern ensued as Hunt romped to a 98-93 points win. With it, the 30-year-old claims the central area super-lightweight title.
Decorated amateur William Cawley looked sharp early on and landed with some quality shots to the body and head of Stephen Jackson. The pro debutant rightly took a 40-36 points win.
King’s Lynn’s popular Stevi Levy won a scrappy bout with Polina Golubeva, on her DAZN debut. Her high work rate earned her a 40-36 win on the referee’s scorecard, as she remains undefeated.
Sheffield’s Khalid Ayub thoroughly outboxed Stanko Jermelic, and heavily dropped him with a left hook in the third round, en route to a 40-35 points victory.
Opening the evening’s action, in her second professional contest, Raven Chapman successfully moved to 2-0 with a routine win over Karina Kopinska. ‘The Omen’ took it 60-54 on points.
