SAM NOAKES threw the kitchen sink at Ryan Walsh through 12 rounds of the first defence of his British lightweight title but simply could not find a stoppage.
Instead, Noakes secured only the second decision victory of his career with Walsh once again living up to his ‘Iron’ nickname.
Judges Marcus McDonnell and Darren Sarginson both scored the Maidstone man a 120-108 winner, while Ron Kearney had it 119-109. All three scores told the story of the one-sided nature of this beating.
After a reasonably even first minute, Noakes started to turn the screw towards the end of the opener, landing with a left hook, right hand combination against his opponent, who spent most of the round in southpaw.
Walsh was momentarily orthodox in the second, and Noakes had some early success when a big uppercut found the target. He later snapped Walsh’s head back with a straight right hand and landed a left hook to the body before the round was out.
But Walsh was not budging despite educated pressure from Noakes. He spent the whole third round in orthodox and was proving less elusive, with Noakes crashing home a series of further right hands.
By the end of the third, much of Walsh’s early movement had faded and the former British featherweight champion was turning into a standing target for big-punching Noakes. He was bleeding heavily by the end of the fourth but he grinned as he walked back to his corner. The fifth was a decent one for the man from Cromer too, as he landed with a few counters of his own,
But Noakes started to go through the gears during the sixth and, given Walsh’s toughness, seven was starting to become hard to watch, as Noakes was landing regularly with both hands to head and body.
Referee Reece Carter started to take a close look at Walsh when Noakes landed with four right uppercuts without reply towards the end of the eighth but the challenger made it to the end of the round and, as he did throughout the fight, stayed standing during the break.
And, after absorbing so much punishment throughout, there was simply no way the proud 38-year-old was going to wilt during the championship rounds, meaning Noakes had to make do with a lopsided points win to successfully defend his British and Commonwealth titles.
