Lynes Takes Purdy’s British Welter Title In York Hall Thriller

Colin Lynes produced a fantastic display against Lee Purdy to take the British Welterweight title with a majority decision in a York Hall classic.

The 33 year-old is the oldest British champion at the weight and belied the nine-year age gap between him and the title holder by bursting out of the blocks to dominate the early rounds before flooring Purdy in the tenth.

The 24 year-old defending champ climbed to his feet from that setback and having enjoyed more of the action in the middle rounds, he threw everything at Lynes in the closing stages but Lynes was trading heavy blows with his Essex rival to disprove those who thought he would tire as the fight went on.

The fight followed an impeccably observed salute to Smokin’ Joe Frazier, and the legendary Heavyweight World champion would have loved the full-blooded finale to the action as the pair continued the relentless pace until the final bell, where Lynes was favoured on two judges’ scorecards 119-110 and 117-112, with Ian-John Lewis scoring it a 114-114 draw.

“I’m right back on track now, that’s what it was all about for me tonight,” said Lynes – who was British Light-Welterweight champion in 2007. “I want to win that Lonsdale belt outright as that’s what all British boxers dream of but ultimately, I want to fight for World honours. Kell Brook is the man to beat and we had a bit of banter afterwards and I told that I am on his tail – that’s my belief.

“In the later rounds I just felt this aura come over me and all the hard work that I’ve done in the gym with Jimmy and Mark (Tibbs, Lynes’ trainers) paid off at the end.

“There was maybe a lack of experience on his behalf but I told him after that he will come back against like I did and he’ll stronger from this and he took it very well. He had some successes in the fight – of course he would, he was the defending champion and he hits very hard. But I had that extra class and ring craft, and the know-how did it for me.

“We both gave a great account of ourselves and it was a great fight to be involved in, I’m sure everyone who watched it enjoyed it and the atmosphere in here was electric too.

“We’ve been working on the left-hook in the gym and when you look at the classy fighters out there like Ricky Burns, Kevin Mitchell, Billy Joe Saunders and so on, they all double up on the left hook and its hard to deal with when you do it right.”

“I seem to bring the best out in people and he boxed superbly tonight,” said Purdy – who went 12 rounds for just the second time in his 20 fight career. “I don’t know what happened to me tonight – maybe I took my eye off the ball and was looking ahead of this fight. I felt that training went really well and my weight was great but he fought out of his skin tonight.

“The team thought that after six rounds or so his jab wouldn’t come out but he kept popping it and he had all the answers, he’s a well deserved champion tonight.

“I’d like to think it’s a bump I can get over quickly and learn from. Craig Watson got the return with me when I took the belt from him and I’d love to have another go at Colin in the New Year and I think people would definitely watch it.”

John Ryder was the star of the undercard with an impressive second round stoppage win over Luke Osman to march on to 7-0 after a year in the pros. Vinny Woolford notched the only other win inside the distance on the night against Tyler Goodjohn, with Mike Perez, Erick Ochieng, Ryan ‘Crash Bang’ Taylor and Chris Evangelou securing points wins while Albert Sosnowski drew with Hastings Rasani