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By: Oliver McManus
Welcome along to the latest instalment of the European Boxing Notebook and boy, oh boy, oh boy it’s been a stellar couple weeks of action across the continent so nothing too in-depth today but let’s rattle through all the key talking points;
Photo Credit: Josh Taylor Twitter Account
Taylor Thumps Postol
Josh Taylor was in action on June 23rd in Glasgow as he took on Viktor Postol in a WBC Final Eliminator – off the back of a third round KO win against Winston Campos in March, all the pressure was on Scotland’s hero with many placing him as the best in the division.
A ferocious fight at the SSE Arena saw both Taylor and Postol finding success with no real round – aside from the 10th – being anything less than 50-50 and, let’s be clear, this was a case of incredible matchmaking with Postol’s stock falling and Taylor’s rising, make no mistake by that, however, Postol was very much here to take glory as opposed to make up the numbers.
The fight started off with the Scottish southpaw and the orthodox-stance Ukrainian circling in the middle of the ring, Taylor punching high with his right jab – against an opponent taller than him – whilst Postol searched in an aggressive fashion, looking to land lunging punches.
Throughout the duration of the 12 rounds we witnessed aggression galore with the intent often being better than the finished product but silky combinations and toe-to-toe, phone-box, fighting ensured this would go down as one of the most aesthetically pleasing “brawls” in recent memory.
A high tempo combined with heavy pressure saw Josh Taylor home with success being born out of his superior work-rate and crisp, clean, body attacks – a flurry of such punches sent Postol down to the canvas in the 10th with his legs seeking to betray.
117-110, 118-110, 119-108… the scorecards were nothing to be get excited about, Taylor’s promoter said as much as that in his post-fight interview, 115-112 was a fair score-line but the right man won and a world title shot is, surely, his next calling.
World Boxing Super Series
Talking of a world title shot the big news regarding Josh Taylor is that he will enter the 2018/19 Super Lightweight World Boxing Super Series in a tournament that, should, guarantee him a shot at, at least, ONE world title; Kiryl Relikh and Eduard Troyanosky will form one of the opening quarter-finals, Ivan Baranchyk and Anthony Yigit will make-up another one whilst the winner of Regis Prograis and Juan Jose Velasco will also enter the tournament.
In the bantamweight division Zolani Tete and Ryan Burnett have long been confirmed as participants for the 2018/19 tournament, along with Emmanuel Rodriguez. It is widely believed that Nordine Oubaali and Tassana Sanpattan will fight each other in a quarter-final match-up whilst Jason Moloney, IBF mandatory challenger, has also been confirmed for the tournament.
Butcher and Camacho set sights on Commonwealth glory
With Jason Moloney entering the WBSS it’s more than likely that he’ll vacate his Commonwealth and with Iain Butcher being the mandatory challenger his title shot could come sooner than expected – the most likely opponent for Butcher to face would appear to be Kyle Williams in a bout that would see Williams, the English champion, looking to add a second belt to his collection.
Wadi Camacho has been confirmed to BoxingInsider as the mandatory challenger for Lawrence Okolie’s Commonwealth strap and Camacho has been vocal on social media in wanting the contest; Okolie has been mandated to defend his belt against Camacho by the end of September 2018 and, Camacho’s manager, Steve Goodwin has said he intends to outbid Eddie Hearn for the rights to stage the event with a likely date being September 22nd.
Conlan’s technical brilliance
Mick Conlan returned to his home town of Belfast in significant style as he fought in Northern Ireland for the first time in eight years. His opponent was of the ideal calibre, a former world title challenger looking for redemption but easily beatable, and Adeilson dos Santos played his role to perfection.
The Brazilian came to box and wanted the win but ultimately was out-classed by the supreme technical skills of Michael Conlan who hardly looked like stepping out of first gear – really silky with his footwork, Conlan’s confidence grew as the rounds went on and a swift counter-punch and, space-creating, jab ensured the Irish hero controlled the bout from the outset. 79-73 to Top Rank’s super-protégé, The Conlan Revolution has only just begun.
On the undercard Jono Carroll handed out a nine round beat-down to his most ferocious of rivals in Declan Geraghty; the challenger seemed to lack the conditioning required for such a high tempo, aggressive fight and after the 2nd round he was visibly huffing and puffing.
Carroll had a wobbly first round but after that he got into his stride with ease, keeping the punches flowing and varying from body to head with ease, a ninth round knockout ensured he retained his IBF Inter-Continental super featherweight title.
Jazza Dickens vs Martin Ward
Jazza Dickens and Martin Ward will meet for the vacant British super bantamweight title on July 27th, live on FreeSports, in Houghton-le-Spring, as the pair compete for the second time in their careers with the first bout, some three years ago, producing an enthralling split decision victory for Dickens; since then Jazza has faced Guillermo Rigondeaux and the belief is that he has improved greater than Ward in the time following but this is, still, too close to call.
Hearn’s new shows
Eddie Hearn has announced two new shows with the first being a NXTGEN event in Cardiff headlined by Joe Cordina vs Sean Dodd; Cordina headlines in his home country for the first time against, ever-game, Dodd in a scrap for the WBA International and Commonwealth lightweight belts.
The Commonwealth belt was vacated by Tommy Coyle who will fight in America in September.
Also on that Cardiff show, August 4th at the Ice Arena, will be Sean McGoldrick, Daniyar Yeleussinov, Jordan Gill and Tasha Jonas.
Amir Khan will return to the ring for the second time since his comeback began, in April, on September 8th in Birmingham, facing, world-ranked, Samuel Vargas in a contest that will be sure to test the former unified champion far more than his 39 second outing against Phil Lo Greco.
Jason Welborn and Tommy Langford will go toe-to-toe for the second time this year as they rematch for the British middleweight championship – the last time they met, in Walsall, there was non-stop action for the full 12 rounds with Welborn, just, nicking a split decision to steal Langford’s title… here’s hoping for more of the same.
Fury’s route to the top
With Jarrell Miller, seemingly, following Dillian Whyte in refusing to travel to Bulgaria to face Kubrat Pulev for an IBF final eliminator contest it is looking increasingly likely as though Hughie Fury will be the next fighter to be mandated against the 37 year old. Negotiations are still ongoing with the Miller camp but with such a public declaration of reluctance to travel it seems inevitable that the governing body will turn to their next eligible challenger in a bid to get the contest staged rather than later.
MTK ink BoxNation deal
Last notebook we reported on the breaking news that BoxNation were to cease broadcasting Frank Warren shows and the news emerging since has revealed that MTK Global will broadcast, at least, 12 shows a year on the 24-hour channel.
The first broadcast will occur on Friday 24th August, from the Emirates Arena, as Ronnie Clark and David Oliver Joyce headline in a contest for Clark’s IBF European Super-Featherweight title; local legend Willie Limond will tackle, MTK newcomer, Darragh Foley whilst Stephen Ormond battles, stable-mate, George Ashie. Also on the bill is David Brophy, Kieran Smith, Stephen Tiffney, Tommy Philbin, Chris Wood and Aidan McGlynn.
European round up
Tony Yoka took on teak-tough David Allen at the Dome de Paris-Palais des Sports on June 23rd with the Rio Olympic gold medallist in the toughest test of his professional career – David Allen was receiving his biggest payday but it wasn’t about the money, there was a genuine belief from Allen that he could find success over the Frenchman and there were periods in which he did rattle some serious punches through. The superior condition of Yoka was enough to see him have the more dominant periods of the bout and he triumphed via 10th round TKO.
That’s the main result but other quick ones – Pavel Sour and Vaclav Pejsar rematched in the Czech Republic, Sour won in the first fight, and got the win the second time round thanks to a unanimous decision to retain his Czech heavyweight title; Abigail Medina defended his EBU Super Bantamweight title against Anthony Settoul and finished the bout in style with a classy first round knockout.
That is it for this edition of the European Boxing Notebook, like I said, there was a lot to get through but it’s been a busy couple of weeks!
