PORTSMOUTH’s David Birmingham convincingly won his farewell fight atop an Atlantic Promotions card on the South Pier as he bested Kingsteignton’s Jamie Speight by 58-56 over six-threes on referee Chas Coakley’s card.
Birmingham showed an excellent engine and workrate for a 38-year-old. He managed to negate his height disadvantage and get into range well to launch sharp aggressive clusters. Speight, a wily and experienced campaigner himself, kept the sessions interesting by trying to pick Birmingham off as he came in but the former footballer exhibited excellent defensive head movement.
I had David in a handy lead going into the bout’s second half but Speight held his ground more in the fourth and fifth and forced Birmingham to pressure him in the last to take the spoils.
Aldershot’s Chezerae Nihell stopped Hungary’s Istvan Orsos at 0-58 of the fifth in a mooted six-threes. The switch-hitting former ABA Elite Champion was in control throughout and varied his offence from slashing hooks to slick straight shots from the southpaw stance.
The visitor was proud and wasn’t down in the fifth nor did he appear hurt, but he’d won nothing and was getting hit very regularly when third man Coakley waved the bout off.
Farnborough’s George Lamport shut out Nicaraguan Geiboord Omier over the same duration on Kieron McCann’s tally. George is sharp and has very fast hands and reactions. He exploited his extra height well to keep the visitor on the outside and pot-shotted him with fast singles from range rather than throwing punches consistently.
McCann also officiated a frustrating six-threes between Fleetwood’s Derek Renfrew and Latvia’s Jevgenijs Andrejevs. Renfrew fought on the front foot and largely threw the jab followed by the right hand. The import was very negative and was content to spoil and fiddle his way through the affair.
Andrejevs had a point deducted in the fifth for rabbit punching. It was scored 60-53 in Renfrew’s favour at the finish.
Southsea’s Jamie Chamberlain shut out Hereford’s Dean Evans over four-threes on Coakley’s card in the show-opener. Jamie punched in volume well, showed he was able to score inside and applied pressure consistently to take every session.
The Verdict Birmingham delivers a rounded performance to bid farewell to the fight game.
FULL RESULTS
David Birmingham (138lbs), 9-4 (3), w pts 6 Jamie Speight (137lbs), 15-35 (2); Chezerae Nihell (197lbs), 2-0 (1), w rsf 5 Istvan Orsos (194lbs), 16-50-3 (5); George Lamport (156lbs), 7-0 (1), w pts 6 Geiboord Omier (159lbs), 4-42-1 (3); Derek Renfrew (173lbs), 7-1-1 (2), w pts 6 Jevgenijs Andrejevs (172lbs), 10-107-3 (4); Jamie Chamberlain (136lbs), 2-0, w pts 4 Dean Evans (139lbs), 8-31-3 (4).
