By Oli Smith

The Prizefighter tournament has a habit of tearing up the formbooks and the most recent edition, from Friday night, was no different. Staged at the York Hall in Bethnal Green, this competition seemed to have it all; power punchers, slicksters, tall rangy fighters and stocky sluggers. You name it; this Light Middleweight tourney supplied it.

As ever, there are favourites to take the crown and £32,000 cash prize; last time out at Welterweight, Gavin Rees swept the competition aside. This time Bradley Pryce – fighting out of the Enzo Calzaghe camp like Rees – was expected to be victorious and get his up and down career back on track.

Just as there are veterans, there are emerging talents such as Steve O’Meara - who had reportedly sparred with both Floyd Mayweather Jr and James DeGale last year. As ever there can be only one winner and with two fighters risking their unbeaten records as well as six others looking to get theirs back on track, once again Prizefighter looked set to deliver.

First up were Prince Arron and George Hillyard; both men had plenty to prove, though Arron has gained momentum since his loss to John Duddy back in 2007. Hillyard has been a little more inconsistent, he has never been able to live up to the early he had shown in is career.

Arron used his fight advantage immediately, at 6’3’’ he towered over Hillyard and used his massive reach advantage to take the first round using his jab alone. A lot of work had clearly gone into studying Hillyard’s habits, which was evidenced by careful deployment of the right uppercut whenever the shorter man stepped inside. It was a tactic Arron used to control the bout; he fought at his tempo and at his distance. The three rounds just wasn’t enough for Hillyard to get into his stride and before he knew it the final bell rang out; the scores 30-27 three times signified Prince Arron’s dominance and his desire to go all the way in the competition.

Next up was the clash of the two tournament favourites; Bradley Pryce and Neil Sinclair. Pryce has “nearly” been the man of British boxing for so long and on Friday it seemed to be the perfect platform to re-launch his career from. Neil Sinclair already owns a win over Pryce and at 36 years of age there were doubts as to whether he could do it again.

Both men came out trading as the first bell sounded out, without time to feel each other out; they opted instead to exchange bombs. Pryce threw more efficiently and landed the cleaner blows. Sinclair meanwhile decided to look busy, he launched attacks and sent numerous combinations Pryce’s way, he just couldn’t hit the target as often as he was being hit. A cut in the second round for Sinclair hampered his situation. Pryce finished the third round with his hands by his sides taunting his former conqueror to step up to the plate.

Tonight Pryce reversed his fortunes against Sinclair, the judges ruled in the Welshman’s favour – albeit by split decision 29-28, 28-29, 29-28. With his quarter final out of the way Pryce declared he would only get better as the competition went on, he would get his chance to prove it against Prince Arron in the Semi’s.

The third quarterfinal was contested between Brett Flournoy and Danny Butler. Butler had previously made it to the semi finals of the Middleweight Prizefighter competition and had boiled himself six pounds south for a crack at the 154lb’ers. Flournoy meanwhile has had a stop start professional career, despite being an accomplished amateur. A pro for four years, Flournoy had only managed 10 bouts before tonight, though has remained unbeaten. His first fight in the competition would represent his biggest step up in class to date.

The fight began tentatively each man unsure how to attack the other. Flournoy’s southpaw stance seemed to give Butler all sorts of problems, who chose to batter his way through his opponents defence, offering very little finesse in his work. Flournoy meanwhile sat back and dealt out a lesson in counter punching. Butler often came in over extending or throwing single shots and ultimately ended up as cannon fodder. Heated exchanges in the second and third rounds yielded nothing positive for Butler who abandoned his boxing skills and with them all chance of victory. Flournoy became the aggressor in the final round and boxed comfortably to the final bell. The scores were read out as 29-28, 30-27, 30-27 in favour of Flournoy.

The last quarterfinal featured Steve O’Meara and Martin Concepcion in a classic boxer Vs puncher match up. O’Meara lived up to his hype as a crafty technician from the off as he landed a sweet left hook and followed up with an attack to the body in the first. Concepcion started planted his feet early, obviously not concerned with conserving energy. Though O’Meara has just two stoppages in his ten victories leading up to tonight, he managed to pick his shots well enough to buzz Concepcion in the second. In the third round Martin Concepcion threw everything he had at O’Meara, who proved to be too technically proficient for him. O’Meara had clearly put his high profile sparring to good use as he stepped to the side as Concepcion teed off, nullifying his offence and ultimately cruising to an easy victory. An almost perfect 30-27, 30-28, 30-27 saw O’Meara through to the Semi finals.

The first semi final was contested between Prince Arron and Bradley Pryce and gave rise to the biggest upset of the evening. Arron immediately gave Pryce difficulties with his freakishly long reach and solid fundamentals. Yet it was Pryce’s reaction to this that was most shocking. Rather than use angles intelligently or counter with the over hand right, he chose to telegraph haymakers from four or five feet away. The Welshman looked lost and out of ideas as his shots sailed way passed the intended target.

Pryce came out more competitive in the second round, but it wasn’t until the final round that he really came alive. Arron disregarded his jab, which allowed Pryce inside, once he got where he wanted to be he knocked Arron around the ring with straight rights and intelligent pressure.

Yet it was to be too little too late for Pryce, had it been a 10 or 12 round contest the result may well have been different, but as it stands scores of 30-27, 30-27, 29-28 saw Prince Arron unanimously through to the final.

Steve O’Meara and Brett Flournoy would decide who would meet him in the final as the two unbeaten prospects squared off. The first round had O’Meara’s name all over it, he tested his range with the jab, and then tested Flournoy’s stamina with some quality bodywork. At first it seemed as if O’Meara was to be the first person to figure out Flournoy’s awkward southpaw stance; but it wouldn’t last.

At the halfway point in the second round Flournoy adjusted to O’Meara and began to pick him off. Perhaps it was fatigue setting in or simply inexperience but O’Meara got sloppy and Flournoy rightly punished him for it. The little mistakes began to add up, though a small clash of heads opened up a cut on Flournoy’s head to take some of the sheen off of his work, he kept plugging away. O’Meara didn’t have another gear to offer and instead tried to grind out a result which was never going to work over the three round distance. Given the fractured nature of the fight with each fighter dominating either early or late it wasn’t a surprise that a split decision was announced. Flournoy was announced as the winner with scores of 29-28, 28-29, 29-28 in his favour.

Not many people would have predicted the line up for the final and yet it isn’t too much of a surprise that the two most awkward fighters would square off against each other. The Prizefighter format leaves very little time to adjust to unorthodox styles so certainly favours certain types of fighters. That is not to take anything away from Flournoy or Arron for reaching the final; they achieved that goal through hard work and dedication. And as with all competitions, there can be only one winner.

At first it seemed as though Prince Arron was going to fall into the same trap as the others tonight, as he spent most of the first round popping out a single jab, which Flournoy countered with relish. Counter attackers need to be overwhelmed to be beaten and if Flournoy displayed a weakness tonight it was his reaction to pressure, especially when along the ropes. It was this that would be his downfall. After two close rounds, which I had Flournoy just about edging, Arron forced the ex-Solider Flournoy up against the ropes and unloaded, seemingly caught unawares, Flournoy dropped to one knee, producing the only knockdown of this Prizefighter event. It was enough to level the scores on my card, yet the judges saw it another way.

Prince Arron was announced as the winner of the competition; final scores of 29-28, 28-27 and 29-28 gave him the unanimous decision, which very few people could argue with.

The win gives Prince Arron the chance to avenge an early defeat to Anthony Small, who can blow very hot or very cold; and is a perfectly beatable opponent for Arron should he catch him on the right day. Prince Arron is certainly the surprise package of the tournament and showed great fitness and improvement in his technique. His defence is still slightly porous however and he does struggle when under pressure. If he can address these problems there is no reason why the 22-year-old scaffolder from Manchester can’t use this as a platform to bigger and better things.