Friday night at the Metrodome
in Barnsley, England, promoter Frank Maloney put on a fight
card headlined by European super bantam champion Rendall
Munroe's dangerous defense against Kiko Martinez in a rematch.
Martinez ruthlessly attacked the southpaw champion in the
early rounds, forcing Munroe to weather the storm and bide his
time until the hard punching Spaniard started to slow down.
After taking the best the former European titlist could dish
out, Munroe came to life and began to prove his superiority in
brutal fashion.
The bigger Munroe forced his challenger onto the back foot
behind a campaign of energy sapping body shots before
punishing Martinez with sizzling combinations from both hands.
Martinez spent the last two frames on the ropes where he was
hammered into a defensive shell and showed tremendous
toughness just to finish the fight on his feet.
Munroe, rated in the top 10 by the WBC, WBA, IBF and WBO, won
the scorecards 116-113, 116-112 and 118-110, retaining his
European title for the fourth time and improving to 18-1 (8),
while Martinez loses his second bout, both to Munroe, falling
to 20-2 (15).
In the chief support bout, blazingly fast Commonwealth light
welter champ Ajose Olusegun, 26-0 (13), turned back the
aspirations of English Champion Scott Haywood, 19-3 (4),
beating Haywood to the punch throughout the contest and
stopping the lanky Derby man in the seventh round.
WBC number 6 ranked London southpaw Olusegun keeps his hopes
alive of challenge the winner of the upcoming Timothy Bradley
vs. Kendall Holt light welterweight title unification bout.
Welshman Gary Buckland, 15-1 (5), regained the vacant Celtic
lightweight title with a thrilling win over Scotland's former
Commonwealth super feather titlist Craig Docherty, 22-5-1 (9),
sweeping the referee's card 100-90 after ten rounds.
2008 Olympic Bronze Medallist Tony Jeffries made a superb
start to his professional career by wiping out Belarus native
Aliaksander Vayavoda, 5-13-1 (3), in short order, stopping the
journeyman at 2:42 of the first round at super middleweight.
Jeffries wasted no time dismantling the import from Minsk,
displaying the kind of form that will take him far up the
ladder in the highly competitive 168 pound division.
Irish super bantamweight titlist Paul Hyland, 14-1 (4),
overcame iron-chinned Ukrainian Nikita Lukin, 8-17-2 (2), in a
six round firefight won by the Dublin stylist 58-57. 24 year
old Hyland could challenge European bantamweight champion Ian
Napa before the year is out.
A brace of four round bouts were also on the bill featuring
the kind of competitive matchmaking promoter Maloney is famous
for.
Light welter Dave Ryan, 8-1 (1), put the first loss to the
record of Jamie Way, 8-1 (1), taking the contest on points,
40-37, while towering lightweight Tyrone Nurse, 6-0 (0),
stayed on track with a 40-36 points verdict over teak tough
veteran Baz Carey, 11-40-4 (3).
Bantamweight Ross Burkinshaw, 5-1-2 (3), and super bantam Mike
Robinson, 4-0-1 (0), went to war and came out with a draw
after four furious rounds and super feather Lee Selby, 3-0
(0), defeated Craig Johnson, 9-4 (0), by a mark of 39-37.
Sky Sports provided television coverage of the marquee events.