Clydebank’s Vinnie Baldassara will be disappointed not to have come away from the Roker Hotel in Sunderland as a winner last night after referee Gary Williams scored his contest against Ryan Kerr as a draw.

Kerr is now unbeaten in 15, but he has drawn his last two contests and was outworked and outboxed by Baldassara who is growing in stature by the outing.

The Sunderland based 23 year old who hails from Stirling looked lacklustre on the night and will need to improve on this performance if he is to beat Matthew Thirwall in his English Middleweight title eliminator in May. It was Kerr’s first fight at Middleweight after campaigning at the weight above since turning pro and it could simply have been a case of struggling to make that weight first time around.

Afterwards, manager Tommy Conway revealed that Ryan had been given the opportunity to face Gary Lockett for the vacant WBU middleweight title at Newport on Saturday night, but had turned the fight down because he wasn’t ready for the step up in class at such short notice.

As for Vinnie Baldassara, the 27 year old definitely has the talent to be a force on the British scene and deserves the opportunities to build on his Scottish Middleweight title success. A Celtic title shot should be a given now and it’s not too big a jump to be looking at a British title challenge in the not too distant future either.