Anthony Fowler, Fabio Wardley Pick Up Wins at The O2 Arena

Anthony Fowler made an adequate middleweight debut as he beat Lukasz Maciec, of Poland, via a unanimous decision on the Okolie-Cieslak bill at the O2 Arena, London. 

In his first fight since being stopped by Liam Smith in December, Fowler was on top throughout but was never in danger of stopping Maciec 

Fowler looked happy to stand and trade with Maciec from the start, although he looked wide open in the opening three rounds to the Polish boxer’s right-hand counters. 

In the fourth, Fowler looked to be getting on top as he beat Maciec to the punch and then had him backtracking after a body shot. 

Fowler’s work to the body in the fifth put the Liverpudlian well on top, as Maciec’s output dried up and he was forced back onto the ropes. 

But Marciec did not crumble, held his own in the sixth and forced Fowler to go back behind his jab in the seventh. From then on Marciec mostly frustrated Fowler without actually threatening him, as Fowler closed out the last three rounds for a comfortable points win. 

John Latham scored it 99-91, Lee Every 99-92 and Michael Alexander 99-93. 

Heavyweight Fabio Wardley kept his winning run going as he knocked out Daniel Martz in the second round. 

Wardley clearly saw the American as no threat and seemed to let Martz unload on him in the first round, but came out for the second with renewed vigor and an obvious plan of swinging a big right over Martz’s rather ponderous jab. 

The first three missed, the fourth – backed up by a left hook - landed and sent Martz over in delayed fashion as he took a knee. He beat the count but the American seemed weary thereafter.  

Wardley kept winging in the rights and when one landed, he again landed a left straight after as Martz went down. This time Martz indicated to referee Lee Every that he had damaged his ear, as he was counted out at 1:30. 

Wardley moved to 13-0.

Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was Boxing Correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001-2019 - covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights across the globe. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications worldwide since the 1980s.