All Square in Super Lightweight Thrilles
Jack Rafferty and Mark Chamberlain shared the spoils, decision-wise, following a thrilling encounter for the British and Commonwealth super lightweight titles in Altrincham on Saturday night.
Judge John Latham scored the fight to Chamberlain by a point, with Michael Alexander and Mark Lyson returning cards of 114-114. The majority draw verdicts sees Rafferty retain his titles, but the popular local man immediately indicated his desire to run it again.
Chamberlain started sharply, but it was a case of an irresistible force meeting an immovable object because Rafferty is knockout fodder for nobody.
The champion came on strong as the challenger seemed to lose heart for a short period following his early success, but Chamberlain found the resolve to return fire and, even in retreat, appeared to match the punch output of Rafferty.
It was too close to call at the final bell and opinion was divided amongst pundits, but the cards probably found the right answer because we will all get to see it once more when the battle-weary pair have recovered.
Zak Miller retained his Commonwealth featherweight title with a hard-fought victory over a rejuvenated Leon Woodstock.
Despite the best efforts of the Leicester man, who gave it his absolute all, Manchester’s Miller was the more busy and decisive and this was reflected in the final scorecards.
Jack Turner had a career-toughest test against an opponent with the same 11-0 record as himself in Nicolas Agustin Muguruza. The Argentinean gave as good as he got right from the first bell and perhaps was getting the better of the Liverpool man at times.
Turner, as his previous 10 knockout victories suggested, had an ace up his sleeve and he brought in into play in round six when he flattened Muguruza twice, forcing referee Michael Alexander to call time on a fine scrap.
Elsewhere on the card, Olympians Lewis Richardson and Charlie Senior doubled their win tallies with points victories over six rounds against Artjom Spatar and Darwing Marintez respectively.
Young super featherweight Nelson Birchall registered another first round stoppage, this time over Federico Sebastian Pedraza, while new welterweight Henry Turner made it two stoppages in a row with a third round success over Ivan Blazevic.
Irish star Steven Cairns continued his trail of destruction with a fifth round stoppage of Kirk Stevens and fellow Irishman Eoghan Lavin took his record to 6-0 with a decision triumph over Dzmitry Atrokhau.
In the middleweights, Stephen Clarke overcame Joe Hardy over six rounds and Jack Power beat Dmitri Protkunas over the same distance.