Ringside Boxing Report: Ryan Rhodes vs. Luca Messi

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Last night at the Ponds Forge Leisure Centre in Sheffield, England, Hatton Promotions hosted a fightnight which headlined the European Light-Middleweight Title clash between Sheffield’s own Ryan Rhodes and Luca Messi of Italy .

Making his first defence of the Title – Rhodes was welcomed in to the ring by ‘Beat-Box’ expert ‘Marv-ill’ and huge support from the Sheffield crowd. A group of Italian supporters wearing T-shirts that said ‘Don’t Mess with Messi’ cheered on their ‘man’.

Round one and Rhodes gets off to a great start dominating the opening frame. Messi hadn’t thrown a punch all through the first minute and already gestured that one punch had strayed around the back of the head.

The Italian still hadn’t thrown a punch when Rhodes lands a left straight through the middle of Messi’s guard and he goes down to the canvas. The challenger immediately springs to his feet shaking his head and protesting (I think he was suggesting he’d slipped).

A cheer rings out as Messi finally throws a right-left inside the closing seconds. It was an impressive start from Rhodes .

Rhodes starts to sink in some solid body-punches in the second round but Messi manages to catch him with a couple of lefts.

Rhodes lands a sharp left in the first minute of the third and Messi goes down again. Getting to his feet – he nods as if to say ‘Yeah, that was a good shot!’

The Italian is on the back foot as Rhodes stalks him all round the ring. Messi tries to escape – covering up from the imminent punches. Two big rights land and Messi returns with a right – managing to get out of the corner.

Inside the last minute and Messi (trapped in the corner again) ‘calls Rhodes on’. In the closing seconds, Messi throws a wild left which clips the top of Rhodes ’s head but he isn’t fazed by it.

In the first minute of round six, Rhodes lands a sickening right to the body and (in delayed reaction) Messi drops to his knee moments later. He takes the count but Rhodes ‘goes after him’ unleashing body-shots and uppercuts that rock back the head of the Italian. Referee Manuel Oliver Palomo jumps in to stop the contest in one minute and seven seconds of the sixth.

Rhodes improves to 44 wins (30 by KO) and 4 losses (2 by KO) while Luca Messi drops to 36 wins (12 by KO), 8 losses (5 by KO) and 1 draw.

There was also a mix of undercard action which saw local boxers dominate.

Martin Murray (St.Helens) v Lee Noble ( Barnsley )
8 Round Middleweight Contest

Murray was scheduled to face Tanzanian – Francis Cheka, for the vacant Commonwealth Middleweight Title but Cheka could not get a Visa this week and Murray was forced to take on late replacement Lightening Lee Noble instead.

The St.Helens man dominated with very little coming back from Noble. It was a frustrated Ingle corner who urged their charge to ‘work’, but confident Murray kept up the pressure and Noble could only cover up.

The Sheffield man comes out better for round three – whipping out the left jab, but despite his corners encouragement (?) – Noble adopts a defensive stance again. At the end of the third, Noble is retired with a rib injury.

Murray gets the stoppage and improves to 19 wins (7 by KO) no losses while Noble drops to 11 wins (2 by KO) 14 losses (2 by KO) and 2 draws.

Steven Foster Jnr (Salford) v Aleksander Vakhtangashvili ( Georgia )
6 Round Super-Featherweight Contest

An all-action contest with Foster building up to some solid body punching by the third. Round four – the Georgian takes a knee briefly after another punishing body-shot. He takes the count and fighting resumes, but seconds later a left to the body seems to sap him and he hesitates momentarily.

Foster sees this and follows it up with more punches. Vakhtangashvili slips on the hoarding and slides through the ropes ending up with one leg in the ring and one leg out! Fighting resumes but he is told to ‘stop pushing down’ by Referee Steve Gray.

In the first minute of the fifth – Vakhtangashvili is down again from a left to the body. He shakes his head as he is counted and clearly does not want to continue. Referee Gray waves the fight off.

Foster wins by fifth round stoppage and improves to 27 wins (17 by KO) 2 losses and 1 draw, while Vakhtangashvili drops to 6 wins (1 by KO) 2 losses (2 by KO) and 1 draw.

Richard Towers (Sheffield) v Ladislav Kovarik ( Czech Republic )
6 Round Heavyweight Contest

Big punching ‘Giant’ Richard Towers literally ‘towered’ over his shorter, fleshy, Czech opponent. Kovarik was down mid-way through the first round from a short right to the head.

Towers followed it up – finishing with a whopping big right to the head which sees the Czech crashing to the canvas. He gets up unsteadily and Referee Steve Gray waves off the fight.

Ingle-Boxer Towers wins by first round TKO. He improves to 8 wins (6 by KO) while Kovarik drops to 9 wins (4 by KO) 7 losses (4 by KO)

Andy Morris ( Manchester ) v Nugzar Margvelashvili ( Georgia )
6 Round Super-Featherweight Contest

Morris looked confident and focussed despite the boot-slipping antics of his Georgian opponent! Marvelashvili started the fight with boots that had been taped around and under the sole. He spent much of the fight slipping and sliding on the canvas and while on his stool at the end of the second it looked like he was hoping to continue in his socks (!) as his trainer began removing a boot.

Referee Howard Foster wouldn’t allow him to take the boots off and the Georgian continued but slips then tumbles over in the third. A solid right lands to his temple area sending him tumbling over and Referee Foster stops the fight.

Morris wins by third round stoppage and improves to 19 wins (7 by KO) 3 losses (2 by KO) while Margvelashvili drops to 17 wins (7 by KO) 9 losses (6 by KO) (and will surely be throwing the offending boots in the nearest bin!)

Sam Sheedy (Sheffield) v Terry Carruthers ( Birmingham )
4 Round Light-Middleweight Contest

Speedy Sam Sheedy scored a points win over ‘come for it’ Birmingham boxer Carruthers. In the opener – Carruthers is sent falling backwards on the ropes from a left-right but he manages to keep upright.

He comes back from that to give Sheedy a decent contest, then in the fourth and final round a right brushes the chest of Sheedy sending him off-balance. Carruthers follows up with a good left to the head as Sheedy starts to fall and the Sheffield man is counted. He looks visibly surprised that it is counted as a knockdown, but his disappointment is short-lived as his arm is raised moments later in victory.

Sheedy wins on points 38-37 and improves to 4 wins (1 by KO) while Carruthers drops to 5 wins (1 by KO) 5 losses (3 by KO) and 4 draws.

Other undercard action:

Lee Edwards (Sheffield) v Dee Mitchell ( Birmingham )
4 Round Light-Middleweight Contest

It was a slow start with not much of a work-rate in the opening rounds but Lee ‘Brown Sugar’ secured the points win (58-57) over Brummy – Mitchell. He improves to 12 wins (1 by KO) 2 losses (1 by KO) while Mitchell drops to 9 wins (2 by KO) 7 losses (1 by KO).

Ross Burkinshaw (Sheffield) v Delroy Spencer ( Wolverhampton )
4 Round Bantamweight Contest

Ross ‘The Boss’ secured a points win 40-35 over durable veteran Spencer who had to take to one knee briefly following a big body shot.

Burkinshaw improves to 9 wins (5 by KO) 2 losses (2 by KO) while Spencer drops to 11 wins (1 by KO) 99 losses (12 by KO) and 3 draws.

John Fewkes (Sheffield) v Billy Smith ( Worcester )
4 Round Light-Welterweight Contest

Fireball Fewkes secured a decent points win (40-36) over tough veteran ‘Gypsy Boy’ Smith who sustained a bad cut to the left brow in the fourth.

Fewkes improves to 19 wins (2 by KO) 1 loss (1 by KO) and 1 draw while Smith drops to 12 wins 80 losses (6 by KO) and 2 draws.

Kid Gallahad (Sheffield) v Dougie Curran ( Newcastle )
4 Round Lightweight Contest

Gallahad dominated Curran forcing a stoppage round two. Gallahad improves to 3 wins (1 by KO) no losses while Curran drops to 3 wins 3 losses (1 by KO).