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© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing
Last night at the famous York Hall, Bethnal Green, in the East End of London, Barry Hearn of Matchroom Sports hosted another episode of the “Prizefighter Series”. This time it was the turn of the welterweights as eight boxing hopefuls lined up for the tournament-style competition that would propel them in to the limelight and earning the winner a £25,000 cheque and the coveted silver trophy.
The York Hall was packed to capacity as the evening’s entertainment got under way. The crowds enjoyed the scantily clad girl-group followed by some expert drumming by four uniformed guardsmen, before the ring-girls, one assigned to each of the eight boxers, did a choreographed flag-wave in the ring. Once the silver trophy had been ceremoniously handed over to the British Boxing Board of Control officials along ringside – the boxing could commence.
First to take to the ring was the favourite, Dangerous Ted Bami, as he faced Andrew Ferrans. Ferrans was the reserve who had been brought in to take the place of over-weight George Hillyard.
Brixton’s Bami had a bit of a scare when Ferrans came out fired-up and landed in the first minute but Bami landed a couple of great rights and a very wobbly Ferrans was stopped in one minute and 43 seconds of round one. Flipping in the air to entertain fans with his trademark somersault – Bami bounced out of the ring to await his semi-final match-up.
Next up, Telford’s Mark ‘Lloydy’ Lloyd faced “Super” Steve Conway, based in Dewsbury, Yorkshire. Experienced southpaw Conway gave Lloyd a tough, close, contest. A messy fight with lots of holding on from Conway, Lloyd looking the sharper of the two men.
Sky Sports stats indicate that Lloyd threw fewer punches, 142-157, but had the better success rate of 23% to 19%. Lloyd wins by unanimous points decision and goes on to fight Ted Bami in the semi-final.
The third quarter-final of the night was that of Londoner Michael Lomax and Glaswegian Craig Dickson.
A confident Lomax, alias “The Look”, got off to a good start landing some long-reaching right punches but sustained a cut to the area above the left ear in the first half of round one.
Round two sees both men landing solid punches, but Lomax sustains another cut – this time to the forehead. In the opening seconds of the final round, Dickson is sent rolling backwards on the canvas from a solid right punch. Jumping up quickly, he gets on with the fight.
Lomax wins by unanimous points decision.
The final match-up came between County Durham’s Nigel Wright and Ross “The Boss” Minter of Crawley. A good first round from Wright, who snapped out the punches and looked to be controlling the fight. But Minter has a better second round as he lands a number of right hooks throughout the frame. Wright settles in again during the third and final round as he dominates “The Boss”.
A close contest 29-28 on all three score cards sees Wright secure his semi-final place against Michael Lomax by a unanimous points wins.
It was a scrappy semi-final between Bami and Lloyd. With little accuracy between either men; Bami landing just 16 punches and Lloyd 5 after two rounds of boxing. It was a better third round for the Brixton boxer, who secured a unanimous points win to go through to the final. But he looked to have damaged his nose in the third frame.
The other semi-final between Michael Lomax and Nigel Wright was just as scrappy with lots of mauling and grabbing-hold. Despite being stitched between fights – blood began to flow again from Lomax’s forehead in round one and Wright had also been stitched after tripping on the steps as he entered the ring for his quarter-final contest!
A difficult fight to score as both men’s punches weren’t accurate. By the end of the third frame, Wright had landed 20 punches out of 108 as opposed to Lomax’s 15 out of 151, according to Sky Sports stats.
Ringside onlookers felt sure that Wright had won the contest and were surprised to hear that Lomax had nicked it by split decision.
The Prizefighter final was between Ted Bami of Brixton, London and Michael Lomax of Chingford, London.
A left punch from Lomax sends Bami tumbling over almost through the ropes after just one minute of round one. Bamiʼs troublesome nose starts to bleed after being caught again by the taller, southpaw man. As the bell ends the first frame, Lomax is bundled over to the canvas.
A clash of heads with forty seconds to go of round two sees Bami gesture to the referee. With a minute to go of the third and final round of the night – Bami is sent flying across the canvas by a shoving blow and ends up the wrong side of the ropes!
Michael Lomax wins by split decision 30-27, 28-29 and 29-28 and is crowned Welterweight Prizefighter.
Overall Results:
Quarter-final:
Ted Bami vs. Andrew Ferrans: Bami wins by TKO in round one.
Mark Lloyd vs. Steve Conway: Lloyd wins on points.
Michael Lomax vs. Craig Dickson: Lomax wins on points.
Nigel Wright vs. Ross Minter: Wright wins on points.
Semi-Finals:
Mark Lloyd vs. Ted Bami: Bami wins on points.
Michael Lomax vs. Nigel Wright: Lomax wins on points
Final:
Ted Bami vs. Michael Lomax: Lomax wins on points.
