Boxing Preview: Impact boxing – Stoke’s King’s Hall show this Saturday

By Keith Chadwick

Impact boxing Ltd stage their latest show at Stoke’s King’s Hall on Saturday night with lightweight Scott Lawton heading a six fight card. Having slipped to a disappointing draw against the much bigger Surinder Sekhon last time out, Scott, who is looking towards a possible shot at the vacant English title, will be hoping for a confidence boosting victory when he goes in with Coventry’s Baz Carey in defence of his Midland Area title. Baz, nicknamed Bulldog and a pro since 2001, has run up a record of 11 wins, 15 losses, three draws and 1 no-contest in a 30 fight career. He always comes to fight and to date is the only fighter to take Olympic sensation Amir Khan the full distance, his lack of inches though – just 5ft 4 1/2 – means that Scott will have a healthy height and reach advantage. Lawton, who at 29, is five years younger than Carey shares many common opponents with the fair haired Coventry man but whereas Baz has faltered periodically Scott has turned in a steady stream of victories to push him into the upper echelons of the domestic lightweight scene. His only setbacks coming against Ayr’s Dave Stewart (a very similarly styled boxer to Scott) and Hartlepool’s gutsy and recently retired Alan Temple, and both of those results were extremely close.
 The Sekhon draw, whilst not ideal, was against a much heavier fighter who had boxed professionally as high as middleweight, and that, coupled with the fact that he is a better fighter than his record suggests, goes some way to explaining what at first glance looked to be a major setback to the man rated 12th best lightweight by trade weekly Boxing News.   
 Carey’s last bout, at Doncaster back in early March, saw him take local favourite Stefy Bull the distance before slipping to a points loss with the WBF Intercontinental lightweight title at stake, so he should have no trouble with both travelling into hostile territory once more or going the full 10 rounds again if required.
 A fired up Scott however, anxious to get his title ambitions back on track in front of a noisy King’s Hall crowd, should know a little too much and it could be time to start looking towards that shot at the English title.   
 Hard working light-welterweight Gary Reid faces the first of two difficult assignments in close succession when he takes on Paisley’s Kevin McIntyre for the vacant British Masters belt.
 The Bodysnatcher, who won the same title in September 2004 with an impressive performance against awkward Sheffield based Kosovan Tony Montana before surrendering it to unsuccessfully step up for a shot at the Midland Area title. Since then he has suffered a couple of defeats - to talented Scot Barry Morrison whilst chasing the British Masters light-middleweight title, and then a contentious disqualification loss against Welshman Jason Cook, a former IBO world champion. Cook doubling up in agony at Liverpool in November claiming an alleged low blow. Many thought that Gary’s stinging hook had been on the legal side of the belt and he left Merseyside with every right to feel a little hard done by. A six round points victory over Manchester’s Davis Kamara last time out saw him return to winning ways ahead of this bout against the taller McIntyre who takes an impressive 22-4 record into the 10 rounder.The former Scottish welterweight champ, whilst fighting almost exclusively North of the border, has beaten all but the very best but maybe a little alarmingly in what was his first contest down at light-welter last time out he fell victim to a 1st round stoppage defeat at the hands of Darlington’s classy Nigel Wright, maybe suggesting that he is vulnerable if put under some serious pressure in the early stages. That said however, eight of his victories have come inside the distance so Gary needs to be wary if the Scot manages to bring his power with him to a lighter division. McIntyre fought for the British welterweight title at Manchester back in December 2003, falling to an eighth round stoppage defeat at the hands of Manchester’s impressive David Barnes so he is unlikely to be a pushover and Gary, who is scheduled to take on Bexleyheath puncher Leo O’Reilly at Bethnal Green on May 26th, will need to be on top of his game. Likeable Stoke light-welterweight Jimmy ‘The Whirlwind’ Doherty will be looking to maintain his 100% record in what will be his 3rd pro bout, having out-pointed the aforementioned Surinder Sekhon and veteran Peter Buckley over six rounds. Having nearly paid the price for a hell for leather start against Sekhon Jimmy was a little more measured last time out and he delighted his noisy band of followers by registering a 60-54 shut-out victory over a defensively minded fighter who has been in with some of the very best, including a couple against a certain Naseem Hamed, in a career spanning 264 fights to date. Standing between him and win No. 3 is Swansea’s twenty-six year old Chris Brophy, formerly a decent amateur, who reached the Welsh ABA semi-finals back in 2003. Chris’s pro record of 2-11-1 doesn’t really do him justice as a fair percentage of his losses have come at the hands of fighters who are on their way up. Jimmy will be hoping to add to that list and inflict the Welshman’s 7th defeat on the bounce. Looking to return to winning ways after a couple of defeats is Stoke’s former British Masters super-bantamweight champion Chris Edwards. He goes in with Chester southpaw Gary Shield who has lost his only two previous bouts, most recently being narrowly out-pointed by one of Chris’s old adversaries Delroy Spencer. Chris out-pointed Delroy over four rounds at the King’s Hall back in November, avenging an earlier defeat and then a draw so he goes into his bout a clear favourite to pick up win No. 8. He will need to maintain a decent work-rate though having been outworked down the final straight by Oldham’s Gary Ford on Impact’s last show back in mid February. Light-middleweight Danny Johnston will be looking to return to winning ways with a favourable result against Bradford newcomer Derek Grieve. Johnston saw off Birmingham veteran Karl Taylor to register a debut win in September 2004 but his next two outings resulted in defeat. A little over a year passed before his next outing and not too surprisingly the Stoke City fanatic fell victim to a 5th round stoppage at the hands of Sheffield based Iranian Manoo Salari in his next outing. It later emerged that Salari was the owner of a sparkling amateur record and he is currently proud owner of a 5-0 record. Along with many of his supporters, Danny felt that he had done enough to see off Birmingham’s Terry Carruthers but Dudley referee Sean Messer scored in the West Midland’s man’s favour by just a single point, handing down a 59-58 score-line. He will be hoping for a change of luck this time. Debutant Ian Clyde, who boxed as an amateur for Crewe A.B.C has swapped the horse racing stables for the boxing ring and he joins the paid ranks at the ripe old age of 32. Former jump jockey Ian had been scheduled to take on fellow first timer Aldon Stewart until Stewart withdrew; a last minute replacement from The West Midlands has been arranged but no further details are available at this time. Impact Boxing have also announced that all of their boxers will be wearing orange ribbons on their shorts and that the conermen will also be donning the same ribbons. The orange ribbons are designed to raise awareness of the issue of self-harm in young people and adults. Tickets for the show, entitled Mayhem, are available by contacting 07854 862463.