Boxing In Britain: Appleby Upsets Simpson To Win British Title

The action on Friday night in Scotland was at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall where Paul Appleby shed his prospect status by taking the British Featherweight title from John Simpson via a very close 12 round unanimous decision.

Appleby, 12-0 (8), employed superior boxing skills to pull ahead early, dropping his fellow Scotsman Simpson in the fifth to take a decided edge.

But Simpson, 17-6 (6), wasn’t going away and fought a hard-nosed effort in this see-saw battle all the way through the final bell only to lose a decision on the cards 115-113 and 115-114 twice.

There may very well be a rematch ordered by the British Board as the crucial knockdown in the fifth will certainly be disputed by Team Simpson.

On the undercard, lightweight Ryan Brawley, 9-0 (1), stopped former British Featherweight Champion Jamie McKeever, 18-9-1 (6), in seven.

McKeever, of Birkenhead near Liverpool, has now lost four on the bounce while Scottish southpaw Brawley won his first contest of 2008.

Also on the victory parade were super middle Stephen McGuire, super bantam Ricky Owen, light middle Jamie Coyle, light middle Andrew Ferrans and super bantam Davey Savage, Jr.

In England on Friday, mercurial journeyman Gary Reid, 13-21-1 (8), was stopped in the tenth and final round by Graeme Higginson, 6-6-1 (3), at Trentham Gardens in Stoke.

On Saturday at Robin Park Center in Wigan, England, super bantam John Donnelly, 7-1 (1), defeated Gheorghe Ghiompirica, 8-39 (1), over six, welter Steve Williams, 3-1 (0), knocked out David Kehoe, 9-47-3 (2), in the first and Craig Lyon, 1-0 (0), won his professional debut by decisioning Delroy Spencer, 10-67-3 (1), after six rounds.