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By Keith Chadwick
Stoke’s lightweight champion Scott Lawton improved his record to 19-2-1 at King’s Hall on Saturday night thanks to a 7th round disqualification victory over Mauritius born Judex Meemea.
London based Meemea, who took a 5-5-2 record into the bout, looked to spoil from an early stage, working his way in up close and denying Scott the room to operate freely.
Current English champion Lawton managed to stay clear for a time, scoring with crisp jabs and combinations but as the contest wore on Meemea’s misdemeanours became more common and on two separate occasions Derby referee Paul Thomas was forced to deduct him a point.
The man from Mauritius was also dangerous with the head and Scott was a touch fortunate to escape any cut injuries.
The end came with 41 seconds of the 7th round remaining when deciding that he had seen more than enough, referee Mr Thomas stepped in to call a halt and disqualify Meemea.
Afterwards a disappointed Lawton said: “That’s not the way I wanted to win, I was hoping to put on an impressive display for the fans tonight because it was a sort of homecoming after winning the English title in Doncaster. Unfortunately, Meemea didn’t come here with the intention of making a fight of it or if he did, he soon changed his mind.”
Lawton continued: “I think I hurt him in both the first and second rounds and after that I think he just played safety first. At times he held me so tightly I had absolutely no room to move. I was also a bit disappointed that the ref stopped it when he did, I was in no danger of losing and at that point I felt he was tiring and thought that I had an opportunity to stop him myself.”
Philosophical as always Lawton added: “A win’s a win no matter how it comes and I will be back in the gym by Wednesday training as hard as ever. My sights are firmly set on a tilt at the British title and until that comes along I will just keep myself busy.”
Delighting the sell-out King’s Hall crowd on his pro debut was Stoke’s ex Welsh ABA champion Aaron Thomas. The son of former City and Manchester United star Mickey, needed just 1:45 of the 2nd round to knock out Darwen’s Martin Sweeney in a light-middleweight bout scheduled for six rounds, hammering him to the canvas with a succession of right hooks to the head.
Sweeney never looked like beating the count of referee Paul Thomas but thankfully he was given the ok by a ringside doctor after a couple of minutes back in his corner.
Stoke flyweight Chris Edwards saw off Derby debutant Usman Ahmed 59-56, backing his smaller opponent up throughout and punishing him regularly against the ropes.
Ahmed had entered the ring with a confident air but Chris was in no mood to slip-up against this youngster and never allowed him the time to settle. Pro victory No. 9 never looked to be in any doubt for the likeable Edwards.
Stoke’s Jimmy Doherty faced a change of opponent at the 11th hour when Birmingham veteran Karl Taylor was replaced by Nottingham debutant Aldon Stewart.
The change however, left Jimmy unfazed and six rounds of boxing later he emerged victorious by 59-56 on the scorecard of referee John Keane, the cue for his noisy supporters to begin their celebrations of his 4th straight victory. With an unblemished record of 4 – 0 Doherty continues to stake his claim as one of the ‘young guns’ of British boxing along with the likes of Amir Khan, Kell Brook and Nicky Smedley.
A big right hook to the head had wobbled Stewart as early as the 2nd round and whilst there were a couple of toe to toe sessions in the later stages the more fluid work came from Doherty.
A battle of debutants saw Barnsley’s John Musgrave eke out a 58-57 six round points victory over Newark’s Andrew Alan Lowe who the majority at ringside thought was a little unfortunate not to be awarded a share of the spoils in what was a close fought bout throughout.
Ex kick boxing champion Lowe, managed and trained by former pro Carl Greaves, felt he had been a little hard done to by referee Mr Keane but having conceded nearly a stone in weight he shouldn’t be too downcast.
The evening’s other bout ended in a six round 56-56 draw between Liverpool’s British Master’s super-bantamweight champion Gary Davies and Nottingham’s rangy Barrington Brown.
The Nottingham man though, has cause to feel a little hard done by after sending Davies to the canvas on no less the three separate occasions. Davies however rallied courageously in the last two rounds to win them against a tiring Brown and having started brightly impressed the referee enough to declare honours even.
Once again Impact Boxing presented an excellent evenings boxing of which all concerned should be very proud.
Press Enquiries: Karl Stubbs – 0770 944 9279
