Boxing Preview: Friday Night’s Kings Hall Show

By Keith Chadwick

Stoke’s Chris Edwards is likely to have his work cut-out on Friday night when he takes on Huddersfield’s pocket dynamo Dale Robinson for the vacant English flyweight title at King’s Hall in what is the fifth promotion by Impact Boxing Ltd, entitled Evolution.

To claim the vacant belt Edwards will have to overcome a man who has been beaten just twice in a twenty-two fight career and who after a glittering amateur career, that saw him twice win ABA flyweight titles, has held the highly acclaimed Commonwealth title. 

The 26 year-old Yorkshireman’s only setback’s have come via points defeats whilst challenging for the IBO super-flyweight crown and then the British Bantamweight title at the hands of Nottingham’s Jason Booth and London’s Martin Power respectively. A measure of his ability can be found by the fact that he lifted the Commonwealth title back in February 2003 in what was just his twelfth pro bout having captured the Central Area title six fights earlier.

Chris, four years older at 30, has a British Masters super-bantamweight title on his CV, but whilst his record shares a number of common foes with the Huddersfield man, he will be facing a huge step up in quality for this scheduled ten rounder.

A fit Edwards urged on by a noisy home crowd will be looking to spring something of a surprise but the smart money must be on the man dubbed “Little Bob” to pick up victory number twenty.
English lightweight champion Scott Lawton, an integral part of the Impact Boxing set-up, warms up for a February defence of his title against West Bromwich’s Dean Hickman with a run-out against Stourport’s battling Billy Smith, a fighter who has enjoyed something of a turnaround in form recently, emerging victorious in five of his last six bouts, all of them on away soil.

That said, Smith has always come up short when the quality of his opposition has improved and whilst he is tenacious enough to give Scott the rounds he needs he is considered highly unlikely to cause an upset.

Likeable Tunstall welterweight Jimmy “Whirlwind” Doherty, a product of the Hulton Abbey club, who married fiance Bliss Price in Congleton at the weekend, is expected to improve his pro record to 5-0 by seeing off Swansea’s Chris Brophy, a former Welsh ABA semi-finalist in a six rounder.

Brophy’s last seven bouts have all ended in defeat including his most recent outing when he fell victim to a 2nd round stoppage defeat at the hands of Birmingham debutant D (Dean) Mitchell. Four of those last seven defeats have come inside the distance so Jimmy will be hoping to register his first stoppage win to send his numerous supporters home happy.
Light-middleweight Danny Johnston, victorious at King’s Hall last time out, takes on Bradford novice Zahoor Hussain in a bid to improve his record to 3-2.

Hussain’s debut victory, at Sunderland in May came via points against Darwen’s limited Martin Sweeney so it is hard to assess what kind of threat he will pose. Danny though, confident on home soil, starts as favourite.

Newark’s former Royal Marine, light-middleweight Andrew Alan Lowe, a close points loser on his Stoke debut two months ago will be looking to bounce back with a win over Bristol based Turk Rocky Chakir who has won one and lost one since making his paid bow earlier this month.
Former English kick-boxing champion Lowe, who gave away 10lbs in weight last time out, is trained by Newark’s former champion Carl Greaves, and upset at what he perceived to be a wrong decision awarded against him last time out, will be giving 110% in search of his first pro victory.

Alsager’s Chester trained Aaron Thomas also appears at Kings Hall against an as yet un-named opponent. He needed less than two rounds to knock-out the aforementioned Sweeney on his debut recently and with a solid amateur grounding coupled with the backing of his noisy supporters he will be confident of doubling his wins tally.

Completing the bill is a battle of debutants between Shelton’s Imran Khan and Leeds fighter Sammy Stewart. Featherweight Khan, who as an amateur won Midlands honours at both junior and senior levels, is brim full of confidence and more than ready to try his hand at the pro game.

Tickets for Friday’s show are available on: 0845 156 768.