Ringside Boxing Report: Malik Bouziane vs. Ian Napa
© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing
Friday night at the Newham Leisure Centre in the East End of London, England, Frank Maloney hosted a fight night headlined by Ian ‘Dappa’ Napa’s first defence of the European Bantamweight title against Algerian born Frenchman Malik Bouziane.
The taller Bouziane received good support from supporters who had travelled over to see him, but he looked serious as he waited in the ring for his opponent.
The champion entered the ring wearing trademark black shades, flanked by trainer Brian Lawrence and Napa’s two belts, the European and Lonsdale, held aloft.
Bouziane comes out and straight away throws the first punch. Keeping busy with the left jab – Bouziane looks sharp. Napa dips low to target the body of his French-Algerian opponent.
Napa keeps firm in the centre of the ring while Bouziane encircles him. A close first round while both men suss each other out – but Bouziane has clearly come to win as he comes out for round two landing first again. Switching between southpaw and orthodox – short punches and long jabs – it seems Bouziane is thinking smart.
Promoter Maloney is stood alongside the ropes – shouting to Napa. It’s a tough fight for Napa and Bouziane always seems to be ‘first’ – not missing an opportunity to take a shot.
He’s not accurate with a lot of long-range punches, but he’s definitely busier and keeping focussed – fighting an intelligent fight. Napa’s corner are starting to get frustrated as they shout out to him to ‘work!’
Napa is being kept at long-range – when he does get in close, he targets the body of Bouziane – but they are short, ineffective shots. By round six – the referee has warned Napa for a few incidents and it all adds to the frustration.
Round eight sees Bouziane continue to control the fight while Napa’s corner pleads with him to work.
The fight finishes as it started – with Bouziane in control. Sky Sports stats reveal that Bouziane has landed 113 of 530 punches for a 21% connect rate while Napa landed 77 of 411 for a 19% ratio.
Bouziane wins the European Bantamweight title by unanimous decision, 118-110, 117-111 and 115-113. His record now stands at 11-1 (1). Napa sees a five bout win streak snapped and falls to 18-7 (1).
Afterward, a disappointed Napa said he felt he might have ‘had to wait too long‘, and may ‘have slightly over-trained‘, but said that Bouziane won ‘fair and square’.
The undercard featured exciting bouts across the board.
Featherweight Akaash Bhatia, 14-0 (5), of Harrow knocked out Slovakian southpaw Elemir Rafael, 3-28-1 (0). Flashy boxer – Kash the Bash – found success with the straight right against late opponent Rafael, early on in the first frame.
Controlling the fight for the first two minutes, Bhatia lands a sweet little left hook to the body of the Slovakian, which sees him drop to the canvas inside the closing minute of the round.
Allowed to carry on – southpaw Rafael is pressured by Bhatia and referee Richie Davies jumped in to stop the contest just seconds later.
Light middle Sam Webb, 13-1 (4), of Chislehurst won a tough eight round decision against Birmingham’s Mad Max Maxwell, 9-5 (1).
Flyweight Ashley Sexton, 5-0 (3), of Cheshunt met Robert Nelson, 6-2-2 (0), of Bradford in all-action, fast-paced fight – which sees Nelson sustain a cut to the right eye in the first round.
Sexton lands a sharp right to the head of the Bradford man in round five and Nelson touches the canvas as his legs buckle. Nelson takes the count and continues the fight. Both Nelson’s right and left eyes are cut now.
Inside the closing minute of the sixth round, referee Dave Parris gets the ringside doctor to look at Nelson’s cuts, which are gaping across the lids and the fight is stopped in favour of Sexton.
Lightweight Henry Castle, 20-4 (11), of Salisbury was taken the six round distance by tricky granite-jawed welterweight journeyman Kristian Laight, 6-56-5 (0), winning a decision despite being deducted a point for a low blow in round five.
Heavyweight Larry Olubamiwo, 4-0 (4), of Hackney met Polish born, Stoke-on-Trent boxer Michal Skierniewski, 3-4-1 (1), who didn’t last long against the ‘War Machine’.
Olubamiwo was landing big punches right through the middle of Skierniewski’s guard, before a big swinging left hook to the head sends the polish-man falling heavily to the canvas after just a minute of the frame has passed.
Olubamiwo wins by first round KO to secure his fourth win by knockout.
Cheatham based heavyweight Tom Dallas, 4-0 (2), had opponent “Big” Ben Harding, 2-2-1 (0), of Plymouth down twice in the first round, the second time sees the fight stopped.
Lithuanian light middle Tomas Grublys, 3-0 (2), gave Portsmouth southpaw Paul Dyer, 18-11 (1), a rough night as Dyer goes down in round three then again in round four.
A few seconds later – Dyer almost falls down again, although he isn’t counted. The second knockdown came half-way through the fourth and final frame. Sustaining a cut to the side of his right eyebrow, the contest was stopped with Dyer in no position to continue, Grublys winning by TKO, round four.
Popular lightweight Liam Shinkwin, 2-0 (0), of Bushey Heath had a tough fight against East Ham lefty Johnny Greaves, 1-28 (1), over four frames, but got his second points win.