Ringside Boxing Report: Scott Gammer – Micky Steeds
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Gammer Retains British Heavyweight Title With Emphatic Points Win
In a dominant first defence of his British Heavyweight title, Welshman Scott Gammer, now 17-0-1, retained his Lonsdale belt along with his undefeated record against a resilient Micky Steeds on a Paul Boyce promotion, televised by Sky Sports. Londoner Steeds, 8-2, found Gammer was still his bogey fighter, dropping to a second points defeat, after struggling to get through the Pembroke Dock man’s guard, and never managed to rock him.
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The result now paves the way for a money spinning fight with massive Brixton fighter Danny Williams, who had been scheduled to fight Gammer tonight as his mandatory defence. Indeed, Gammer was hopeful to keep busy after the victory, suggesting that if all went well, his next defence would be held in December.
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The trend of billing the Welshman’s fights as a battle of Britain continued this evening, as Steeds arrived in the ring in shorts bearing the St George’s Cross, although the shorts were so long as to reach his shins. He made a confident start to the bout, opening up with plenty of shots, catching Gammer with jabs and hooks, but failed to ruffle his opponent before the partisan and noisy home crowd.
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As the first drew to a close, what became the theme of the evening emerged as Gammer stunned Steeds with a forceful jab, and opened up to the body with a powerful hook.
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After taking the first round with his high workrate, Steeds failed to capitalize as Gammer brought his greater strength to bear, avoiding the looping rights often thrown wildly by Steeds, although rarely catching his opponent. With Steeds’ workrate dropping, Gammer claimed the second, third and fourth with increasing focus on the body, while taking many of Steeds’ hardest punches on his gloves.
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Looking comfortable, the Welshman took his foot off the pedal in the fifth round, happy to return to the form of the cagey early rounds, waiting for Steeds to make the first move, while a hard right to the ribs took the wind out of Gammer, for possibly the only time in the bout.
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Having been rightly stunned by the better work by Steeds in the fifth, a somewhat berated Gammer returned to the ring with renewed vigour, again throwing hooks to the ribs of his opponent time and again, along with a fearsome straight right followed by a left hook silencing the resilient Englishman.
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With ever increasing dominance, the pawing jabs of Steeds barely registering, Gammer moved forward behind his jab, which penetrated the Londoner’s guard time and again throughout. Finding his opponent on the ropes or in the corner, Gammer went to work on the body, mixing enough hooks and jabs to the head to keep Steeds guessing, and to bloody his nose.
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Moving into the later rounds, it looked as though Gammer was homing in on the knockout, with his flurries of punches leaving Steeds at a loss how to respond, and twice it seemed his knees buckled, once in the ninth and once in the tenth, from the powerful flurries which left his nose bloodied, and increasing damage on both eyes.
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With the crowd baying for a knockout, stirred into chanting every time the small group of Micky Steeds fans were chanting his name, Gammer could have pushed forward a little more, but sensing that victory was inevitable, and that his opponent had steeled himself for the final stretch, Gammer went back to boxing from distance for the remaining two rounds, with his jab and straight rights keeping Steeds too far away to cause any damage with his looping right hooks and weak jab.
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When the final bell rang, both men happily hugged each other, with the Welsh crowd delighted with an obvious victory for their man. 23-year-old Steeds will have plenty more chances, and will learn with defences of his Southern Area title and will grow with experience, although his lack of power may well be a worry in a division of taller men than he.
The results read 118-110 by Mark Green and Terry O’Connor, while John Keane somewhat harshly found that every round had gone to Gammer and a 120-108 scoreline. The comfortable victory left very few marks on Gammer, and he looked as if he could easily have gone a further few rounds.
With his rivals in Britain including Matt Skelton and Danny Williams, Gammer will face men much more powerful than Steeds, or his previous opponents, and when his chin is truly tested, the hardworking, strong Gammer will really set a benchmark.
After the fight, Gammer said: “Hopefully now I will face Danny Williams, he is still the mandatory challenger. He couldn’t fight tonight because of Ramadan, but that is over at the end of this month, so hopefully we can arrange something.
“The big three are obviously Matt Skelton, Danny Williams and (Audley) Harrison. I’m the British champion but I don’t have anywhere the reputation they do. They’re all household names, so to fight them would really get myself a name.
“Steeds is a similar fighter to the way I fight, he was a counter puncher, he just lay back a little too much, and tried to catch me after my shots. To be honest, it was much the same, if something, I didn’t control it as much as I did last time. Micky has very fast hands on him, and I’ve been sparring with Enzo Maccarinelli, so it has done me the world of good.â€
Elsewhere on the bill, there were disappointments for local boys Ceri Hall and Karl Dawid, who dropped points decisions to Michael Grant and Tyann Booth respectively.
Swansea Light Welterweight Damian Owen cruised to a 59-55 victory over the Belarusian, Yauhen Kruhlik, who was teetering during a frenetic first round, but regained his composure to go the full 6 frames.
Martin Lindsay beat Nikita Lukin to move to 6-0 in the featherweight division with a comfortable points win.
Polish fighter Gregorz Proksa defended his IBF and WBC Youth Middleweight titles with a comfortable points victory over 10 rounds against Argentinean Ignacio Fraga.
The evening’s curtain-closer was Cardiff light heavyweight Wayne Brooks, who pounded cruiserweight Marko Doknic with effective straight shots, leading to the referee stopping the bout 58 seconds into the third round.
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