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© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing
Hayemaker Boxing Promotions, Adam Booth and David Coldwell, hosted their first event on Saturday night. Held at the Hillsborough Leisure Centre in Sheffield, England, it was ‘The Ryan Rhodes Show’, headlined Ryan Rhodes’s defence of the British Light Middleweight title against Scottish boxer Jamie Coyle.
Before the main event, there were a couple of other fights which ‘whetted the appetite’ of the Sheffield crowd.
Former professional footballer – Curtis Woodhouse of Driffield, Yorkshire, faced Walsall’s Jimmy Beech in a four round welterweight contest. Round one starts messy with both fighters warned for holding and to ‘watch the head’ in the opening half minute.
Mid-way through the round, tough fighter Beech goes for an uppercut which misses and Woodhouse picks his moment to land a right hook, following it up with another straight right. Beech – the slightly bigger man – continues to look for the uppercut, but does a lot of holding on during the round, proving an awkward opponent.
Woodhouse lands some solid body-punches in round two which sees the Walsall man ‘back-off’ mid-way through the frame. Beech is warned about holding at the end of the round. Mid-way through the fourth and final round, Woodhouse lands a peach of a left shot and Beech holds on. Both men land shots in the final half minute and they ‘tangle’ together. It’s a messy last round.
Woodhouse retains his unbeaten record with a points win, 40-36. His record now stands at 8-0 (4).
Derry Matthews faced Martin Lindsay for a ten round title eliminator in the featherweight division, with the winner to face British Champion Paul Appleby. Liverpudlian Matthews entered the ring wearing glimmering gold attire. ‘The Golden Boy’ suffered his first defeat to Mongolian spoiler Choi Tseveenpurev, by fifth round knockout earlier this year. ‘Mad-man’ Lindsay – originally of Belfast and now based in Canada, – has twelve wins with no losses.
Round one and Matthews whips out his long-reaching left and rights. In the closing seconds, he lands a sweet right punch on the ‘Mad-man’. With 50 seconds of round two remaining, Matthews lands a countering left hook to the face of Lindsay and the Belfast man drops to his knees briefly. A body shot in the last 15 seconds sees Lindsay hold on to Matthews for a moment. It’s a good start for the Liverpool boxer.
Round three and Lindsay lands a notable clubbing left but Matthews doesn’t appear phased by it. Referee Marcus McDonell tells both men to ‘clean it up’ at the end of the frame then Lindsay throws a big right and Matthews returns with a big right of his own, which can be clearly heard around ringside! Mathews has sustained a small bruised swelling under his left eye as he returns to his corner.
Lindsay has a better round four. Looking to have ‘settled in’ – he lands a clubbing right punch and Matthews holds on momentarily. Seconds later and the Belfast-man lands another solid right to the face of Matthews. Matthews returns to his corner with a bad cut across the underside of the left brow – but thankfully for him – he has experienced cut-man Mick Williamson in his corner, who immediately goes to work on the injury.
Mid-way through the fifth, Lindsay lands a left which sees Mathews dip his knees slightly, but manages to throw a straight right in return. Moments later, Lindsay lands a right which targets the bleeding cut on Matthews’ left brow. Then Lindsay lands a left hook right on the nose of Mathews, whose head flips back. Matthews lands a good right of his own in the last half minute and both men ’tussle’ on the ropes.
A close round six but Matthews’s face is covered in blood from the brow cut and now from the nose at the end of the frame. Another close round seven, but Lindsay lands some big shots again and Matthews’s left brow continues to bleed. Round eight and Lindsay seems to be looking for the big shots while Matthews ‘picks away’.
Matthews lands a good right in the opening minute of round nine. Lindsay throws some swinging shots – looking for the knockout punch which have – up to now – just missed their mark, but with just over a minute of the frame remaining, the Belfast-man throws a thumping left hook which sends Matthews thudding heavily on to the canvas. Amazingly, Matthews is counted – he is just about conscious and is unable to get up from the canvas and it’s a worrying time as paramedics administer oxygen. Although Matthews walks unsteadily to his corner to sit down, he looks ‘out of it’.
Afterward, Lindsay said he “knew he had to have two big rounds, I knew I was behind.”
Other undercard results:
Josh Wale of Barnsley vs. Harry Ramagoadi of South Africa
Super bantamweight Josh “The Outlaw” Wale was distraught when he was retired by his corner at the end of round two. Suffering a badly swollen right eye which Ramagoadi targeted, David Coldwell made the understandable decision to pull Wale out of the contest .Ramagoadi wins on the retirement of Josh Wale and improves to 19-9 (5).
Tony Dodson of Liverpool vs. Nathan King of Aberdare, Wales
It was a close and hard-fought contest between these two super middleweights who both looked like they’d been in a war by the end of the sixth and final round. But Dodson secured the points win and improves to 24-4-1 (12).
John Watson of Liverpool vs. Geoffrey Munika of Kenya
It was a short night for lightweight John Watson who scored a TKO in round one of this scheduled four rounder. Watson notches up his eighth win with no losses.
Michael Maguire vs. Delroy Spencer of Wolverhampton
It was a four round points win for bantamweight debutant Maguire, who had a testing first pro-fight against experienced Spencer.
