Ringside Boxing Report: Lee Haskins vs. Ross Burkinshaw
© Jane Warburton / Saddo Boxing
Last night at the Seaburn Centre in Sunderland, England, Frank Maloney hosted a fight night headlined by Bristol-man Lee Haskins’ first defence of the British super flyweight title against active duty British Army soldier Ross Burkinshaw of Sheffield.
Ross ‘The Boss’ enters the ring to a fanfare of bugles from fellow soldiers. Former IBF light heavyweight titlist Clinton Woods follows Burkinshaw into the ring with British belt held aloft.
The champion Haskins enters the ring looking as confident as ever, his belt held aloft by Jamie Sanigar, brother of Chris Sanigar, Haskins’ trainer, co-promoter and manager.
Burkinshaw gets off to a cagey start against flashy Haskins, who has his gloves dropped low as usual. Fearless Haskins gets straight to work looking for openings and trying different angles to get at his opponent while Burkinshaw plays a ’waiting game’.
Mid-way (perhaps through early frustration) through the round, Burkinshaw shoves his elbow into the face of Haskins, which is rewarded by a stern telling off from referee Ian John-Lewis.
Fighting resumes and Haskins leans back to ‘lob’ an upper-cut under Burkinshaw’s chin. Burkinshaw has thrown very little – keen to keep his gloves up tight instead, but southpaw Haskins manages to squeeze past the high guard as well as landing a couple of shots to the body.
Taller Burkinshaw seems hunched over as he faces Haskins and doesn’t look comfortable. He is under pressure in the last few seconds of the first frame and as the bell sounds the end of the round, Haskins puts his face close to the challenger – ‘eyeballing’ him.
Haskins lands head shots at the start of the second round and another bugle fanfare rings out around the venue as if to lift the spirits of the Rifleman. But Burkinshaw is struggling to get many shots off.
In the closing minute, he shoves Haskins down to the canvas with his arm. Haskins lands clubbing lefts and rights, then leans back to throw in an uppercut and the two men grapple as they finish the round.
Burkinshaw starts the third round better and manages to land a decent right which rocks back the head of Haskins, who just grins back as if to say ‘nice try’. But Haskins lands another clubbing right to the body followed by an uppercut and a left to the face of his opponent.
Burkinshaw is gradually ‘uncurling’ from his tense stance and is beginning to get shots off. Again, the buglers’ fanfare blasts out to spur on the young soldier.
In the first half minute of the fourth round, both men are warned for rubbing foreheads. Haskins lands solid clubbing rights and lefts, which land around the ears of Burkinshaw. Burkinshaw’s head flops to one side from the last blow and referee John-Lewis jumps in just as Burkinshaw takes a knee.
But the referee quietly gestures to Burkinshaw that he has had enough and is stopped much to the disapproval of the crowd.
Haskins wins on a fourth round stoppage and improves to 19 wins (10 by KO) and 2 losses (2 by KO).
Afterward, Don Broadhurst, holder of the Commonwealth super flyweight title told Sky Presenter Ed Robinson that he ’wasn’t impressed’ by Haskins’ performance and was ‘really relishing a fight with him’.
The final fight of the evening was that of Olympic Bronze Medallist Tony Jeffries as he fought Belorussian Ilya Shakura in a four round super middleweight contest.
Jeffries entered the ring with trainer Bobby Rimmer and was escorted by 2009 ‘Miss Sunderland’ winner Alexandra Devine.
Jeffries was ‘wound up’ coming in to this fight because opponent Shakura had been ‘verbally spouting off’ this past week about Jeffries.
Fighting in front of his home-crowd, Jeffries had huge support. As the first round starts, Shakura is already caught more than once by Jeffries’ solid left jab.
Then, just inside the first minute, Shakura goes down to his knee from a left followed by two right shots to the body. Fighting continues with Shakura throwing head shots which don’t faze ‘Jaffa’.
But with only half the round gone, a number of head shots snap back the head of the Belorussian as he stumbles back on the ropes and referee Marc Currie jumps in to stop the contest.
Jeffries expression afterward clearly depicted the wound-up frustration that had led him to off-load on his opponent, and he looked like he wanted to off-load more!
Walking round the ring to fantastic applause from the home-crowd, Jeffries proudly displayed his ‘Sunderland: Let’s Welcome The World’ t-shirt.
Jeffries notches up his third pro-win by KO.
Undercard results to follow.