British Boxing: Oakey KO’s Haymer To Retain Light Heavyweight Title

Tony Oakey finally got his chance to even the score against nemesis Peter Haymer last night at London’s historic York Hall and the British Light Heavyweight Champion grabbed the opportunity with both hands, knocking out the English titlist with a riveting left hook in the ninth round on a Frank Maloney promotion.

Much shorter than the six foot one inch Haymer, Oakey worked all night to get on the inside of the local man and displayed an impressive activity rate for a stocky 32 year old into his tenth year as a professional.

Haymer tried to keep Oakey on the outside with a long jab and pick off the relocated Londoner on the way in when Oakey got past it but “The Daddy” wasn’t able to maintain a favorable distance.

Oakey’s graft began to pay off in spades in the middle rounds as Haymer’s resolve started to crack under a storm of looping right hands and the champion’s two handed assault of short punches at close range.

The ninth saw Oakey land at will and he set up a full blooded left hook at the end of a three punch combination that canvassed an exhausted Haymer to end the bout at 2:10 of the round.

Oakey wins the rematch, retains his British title for the second time and moves to 25-2-1 (7). Afterward, Oakey told Sky Sports that he was gunning for a European title opportunity next.

Haymer falls to 17-5-1 (5) and has now lost three consecutive bouts.

On the undercard, super feather hot shot Akaash Bhatia, 10-0 (2), remained pristine with a eight round points victory over Wladimir Borov, 16-43-1 (6), Light heavy prospect Tony Salem, 7-1 (3), was gunned down by former Olympian Courtney Fry, 11-1 (5), in the sixth, welterweight strongman Mark Thompson, 14-1 (8), stopped Darren Gethin, 8-12-5 (2), in the second.

Heavyweight John McDermott, 24-3 (15), inched closed to a British title shot with a six round verdict over Daniel Peret, 10-11 (3), super feather Henry Castle, 16-4 (8), outpointed Frederic Gossett, 11-42-2 (3), over six, welter Scott Woolford, 6-1 (0), outpointed Terry Adams, 6-10-1 (2), over four, welter Jamie Radford, 3-0 (1), bested Johnny Greaves, 0-9, over four and Women’s boxing sensation Laura Saperstein, 2-0 (0), moved ahead with a four round points win over Olga Varchenko, 0-1 (0).