IT LOOKED as if an early night was on the cards in the Lazarus Suite at Doncaster Racecourse when in a clash for the vacant Central Area featherweight title unbeaten local Reece Mould floored Birmingham’s Sean Davis twice inside the opening round.
While the gutsy Brummie then proceeded to give as good as he got in the next, the dying embers of the third saw him not only cut by the right eye but down again seconds before the bell.
That early night was looming again and this time it wasn’t long in coming – a left to the head, virtually the first punch of the fourth session, sent Sean over backwards and prompted referee Howard Foster to wave it off without taking up a count as the towel came in. Just 12 seconds had elapsed.
No fewer than three Yorkshiremen found themselves punching for pay for the first time and while all emerged distance winners over four, the margins of their respective victories varied from wide to narrow.
Local referee Mike Alexander oversaw the one-sided contest between wildly popular Barnsley light-heavy Callum Simpson and Derby veteran Elvis Dube, the new start working off the jab and slamming home several big early rights. He then slowed the pace a little en route to a shut-out win after realising midway through that Elvis wasn’t going to wilt.
The same official gave Sheffield super-welter James Rayworth a 39-37 win over Hull’s Zygimantas Butkevicius, who on another day might just have earned a share.
Manchester’s Darren Sarginson scored local first-timer Taylor Watkins a narrow 39-38 winner over tattooed Worksop welter Luke Middleton and also turned in 40-36 cards in the remaining three bouts which saw Hull’s Lewis Sylvester getting the better of Reading’s Ibrar Riyaz, comebacking Leeds stylist Jack Daniel calling the shots against Evesham’s Brett Fidoe and a second Hull resident, one-fight novice Sonny Taylor, besting Lithuania’s Dmitrij Kalinovskij though there wasn’t a deal of daylight between the pair in any of the rounds.
The Verdict Odds-on favourite romps home in the 10pm at Doncaster.
FULL RESULTS
Reece Mould (125lbs 6oz), 12-0 (6), w tco 4 Sean Davis (125 1/2lbs), 14-3; Lewis Sylvester (138lbs 5oz), 3-0, w pts 4 Ibrar Riyaz (141lbs), 6-163-4 (3); Sonny Taylor (202lbs), 2-0 (1), w pts 4 Dmitrij Kalinovskij (197 1/2lbs), 13-55-4 (5); Jack Daniel (125lbs), 4-0 (2), w pts 4 Brett Fidoe(127lbs), 13-52-5 (6); Callum Simpson (181lbs), 1-0, w pts 4 Elvis Dube(190lbs), 8-76-2 (5); James Rayworth (155lbs 5oz), 1-0, w pts 4 Zygimantas Butkevicius (155lbs), 2-22; Taylor Watkins (143lbs 5oz), 1-0, w pts 4 Luke Middleton (146lbs 5oz), 2-5.
