Queensberry Promotions, last week they were in Birmingham where they staged a long, tittle-laden card headlined by Nathan Heaney’s British title fight with Brad Pauls. Tonight they returned to London’s York Hall for a show filled with prospects and headlined by the British bantamweight title fight between Chris Bourke and Ash Lane.
Moses Itauma, 8-0 (6 KOs), made his first appearance of what he hopes will be a busy year and the heavyweight prodigy took Bradford’s Dan Garber apart inside a round.
The 19-year-old from Chatham trained with Alan Smith at the iBox Gym ahead of this fight but the fight was over before he had a real chance to display what they had been working on.
Garber, 6-3 (2 KOs) took Thomas Carty to the eighth round before being stopped last November but had absolutely no answer for the speed and accuracy the slick Itauma possesses. The 38-year-old was hurt by the very first southpaw left hand Itauma landed and his legs betrayed him again just moments later. He stayed on his feet but referee Mark Bates considered halting the action there and then. He allowed the action to continue but Itauma was in no mood to drag things out. He traded Garber in his own corner and punched away until Bates did step in to stop the fight.
It was Itauma’s fourth consecutive stoppage victory and the challenge will be to find fighters capable of providing some resistance. He will make his next appearance on the undercard of the undisputed heavyweight title fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia on May 18.
Willy Hutchinson is the wildcard of Britain’s thriving light heavyweight division and the 25-year-old produced an eye-catching display to make short work of Germany’s Martin Houben, 17-3 (10 KOs), and successfully defend his WBC International light heavyweight title.
The Scot has rebuilt slowly since suffering a shock stoppage defeat to Lennox Clarke in a clash for the vacant British and Commonwealth super middleweight titles back in 2021 and has looked like a different animal since making a permanent move up to light heavyweight.
Hutchinson, 17-1 (13 KOs), took charge from the very start. He steadied Houben with a right hand within the first 30 seconds and was clearly too fast and sharp for the ambitious but loose German.
Houben tried getting onto the front foot in the second round but there was a feeling of inevitability about matters. He fell short time and time again and eventually Hutchinson found a big right hand that dropped Houben heavily. He got to his feet and was allowed to continue but Hutchinson went about his business calmly but coldly to finish matters. He bulled Houben back to the ropes and found another big right hand that rocked Houben’s head back. It was enough to persuade referee Kieran McCann to jump in after 2:32 of the second round.
Royston Barney-Smith, 9-0 (5 KOs), has designs on becoming Britain’s youngest world champion of the modern era. The 20-year-old super featherweight from Southampton has shown glimpses of true quality in his short but impressive professional career and added another clip to the highlight reel by stopping Nicaragua's Jose Manuel Perez, 11-12-1 (8 KOs).
Barney-Smith found his range immediately, scoring with his accurate southpaw jab and stepping back just out of range to follow it with a long straight left. Perez absorbed everything but did begin to look a little disorganised when he was backed to the ropes.
The left hand was the key. Barney-Smith found a home for it time and time again throughout a dominant second round and the shorter Perez had neither the footspeed or imagination to get close.
It was the first time that Barney-Smith had been scheduled to box eight rounds and his patience was impressive. After landing so many clean, hard shots he could have easily got carried away and ragged but Ben Davison sent him out with instructions to up the pressure in the fourth round. Barney-Smith used his jab, hurt Perez long the ropes and then dropped him with a series of left hooks. Referee Lee Every stopped the fight after 1:20 of round four.
Sonny Liston Ali, 8-0 (1 KO), got the action underway by blowing away Petar Aleksandrov, 4-35-1 (2 KOs).
The Romford welterweight towered over the Bulgarian switch hitter and got on the front foot from the opening bell. Aleksandrov dropped his hands, shimmied and moved but might have been better served by keeping his hands up as Liston Ali found him almost impossible to miss with jabs and long right hands. Aleksandrov fired back but the 25-year-old just walked through everything that came his way.
The ending came just 20 seconds into the second round. Liston Ali picked a beautiful screw shot with his right hand and followed it with a stiff left. Aleksandrov clambered to his feet but the fight was waved off. It was the first stoppage victory of Liston Ali’s career.
Three years after competing at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, Luke McCormack, 1-0 (1 KO), finally made his professional debut. McCormack is renowned as a tremendous talent but the super lightweight is now 28-years-old and has some catching up to do after missing such a long period of time due to medical issues.
Whereas his twin bother, Pat, won a silver medal at the Games, Sunderland’s McCormack was beaten by the sensational Andy Cruz in Japan but got his professional career underway against Nicaraguan southpaw, Robin Zamora, 21-27 (10 KOs).
Although he is naturally aggressive and was desperate to make an impact, McCormack was quite measured in the opening round and boxed with controlled urgency. He pressed forward, and although Zamora presented him with a constantly moving target as he circled away, McCormack put his punches together quite well. He hurt Zamora with a right hand midway through the opener and didn’t forget to go to the body.
He stepped off his stool to start the second round, touched Zamora with the jab and sunk in a right hook to the body. Zamora dropped, winced and never looked like being able to continue. The ending came 15 seconds into round two.