Woolcombe Falls Short

By Arvin Nundloll

Gary Woolcombe failed to retain his British Light Middleweigh title against Gary Rhodes at the York Hall, London.

After 9 rounds of competitive and exciting boxing, Woolcombe had been caught with a crisp punch to the side of his head and had him require medical attention once the fight was stopped.

Having previously been down in the 6th round, Woolcombe sturggled to find his way through to Rhodes and left him at the mercy of Rhode's counter punches.

Rhodes had his way early on, coming out agressive and closing down Woolcombe and utilising Woolcombes agression against by landing counter punches to Woolcombe's body and head. Early on it looked as though Rhodes had the stronger punches and landed the cleaner hits, frustrating Woolcombe which in turn made him to swing wild and punch off-target.

Woolcombe had a delayed reaction to the first knockdown, a counter right to the face of Woolcombe. Since then it was a case of how long could Woolcombe last.

In the latter rounds before the stoppage Woolcombe had given solid jabs which began to trouble Rhodes, yet experience showed when the counter punching ability from Rhodes destroyed Woolcombe.

This can be seen as a case of man vs boy, that Woolcombe is still young and learning more skills to strenghthen his boxing ability. I have no doubt that Woolcombe will come back stronger and more focused in his drive to regain his British title and then begin to progress onto the European stage.

Elsewhere on the undercard Ajose Olusegun looked in fine shape as he anihilated Alexander Spitjo. Ajose outclassed his opponent throughout the early rounds before turning it on in the 4th round going at Spitjo like a man possessed before the referee stopped the bout.

John McDeremott gave a rare TKO perfomance against contender Pele Reid, in an enthrilling matchup which had the crowd stand up and take note of Big John's power. Reid came under a barrage of jabs and uppercuts before the referee stopped the fight 45 seconds into round 2.

Martin Murray defeated late challenger James Tuper winning 40-36.