Potteries Fight Night Preview

by Keith Chadwick

Stoke promoters Impact boxing stage their latest show on Saturday night with Fenton Manor Sports Complex hosting the six fight show.

Unbeaten Tunstall welterweight Jimmy Doherty will be looking to improve his record to 6-0 with a bout against Worcester’s Steven Cooper who is a better boxer than his moderate record suggests. Only two weeks ago Cooper gave Newark’s A.A Lowe a good six round workout before going down to a 59-56 defeat.

Shelton super-bantamweight Imran Khan exploded onto the pro scene at King’s Hall back in November when he needed less than a round to knockout fellow first timer Sammy Stewart, an impressive feat, especially as he had to recover from a flash knockdown by the Leeds boxer in the opening seconds.

This time Khan goes in with another Yorkshireman, Bradford’s Shaun Doherty who has won one and drawn one of his four paid bouts to date, his sole win coming via points against Birmingham veteran Anthony Hanna last time out. Imran should have enough to pick up his second victory.

Stoke’s Danny Johnston could well face a tougher nights work against Manchester based Pole Tomasz Mazurkiewicz who hails from the talented Oliver Harrison camp. Tomasz looked impressive in his last bout, out-pointing Luton battler Paul Porter over four rounds at Dagenham recently. He has lost just twice in seven previous outings, only John Fewkes, the talented Sheffield boxer and Sunderland’s Martin Marshall getting the better of him so it looks likely that Danny is going to have to achieve victory via the long route if he is to make it four wins on the bounce. Interestingly a look back through the records shows that the two boxers both took on the aforementioned Marshall within the space of a fortnight late last year with Danny emerging victorious over six rounds and then Mazurkiewicz slipping up over the same distance a couple of weeks later.

Heavyweight Alex ‘The Bull’ Ibbs fights in his home town for the first time in what will be his 2nd pro fight. He takes on Lancaster’s Dave Ingleby who has won just three out of eighteen so far. Ingleby can bang though, he gave Mexborough’s Scott Brookes a few nasty moments in the latter stages at Sheffield’s Don Valley Stadium last week before losing out on points over six rounds, though at 16st 11lbs he did have a weight advantage of just over three stone.

Barnsley puncher Surinder Sekhon is no stranger to Stoke fight fans, he somewhat surprisingly held Scott Lawton to an eight round draw fifteen months ago having lost to a debuting Jimmy Doherty three months earlier. This time he shares the ring with Alsager’s well supported Aaron Thomas who has looked impressive in his two paid outings to date, registering a knockout 2nd round debut victory over Darwen’s outgunned Martin Sweeney and a six round points win over Cambridge veteran Ben Hudson.

Surinder picked up just the second win of his fourteen fight pro career at Derby recently but he is another boxer who is better than his record suggests, awkward due to a southpaw stance plus he always comes to fight. Thomas is likely to pick up win number three but this should prove a good learning fight for him. 

Chester light-welterweight Chris Goodwin completes the line-up he takes on Swansea’s James Lilley and with both boxers taking identical 1-1 records into the bout a close contest is expected.

Limited tickets are still available and can be purchased from Impact Boxing on 0845 156 7168 or by visiting www.impactboxing.com