Scottish Amateur And Professional Boxing
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The St. Andrew's Sporting Club played host to yet another hugely successful dinner show last night that gave wins to four Scottish professionals.
Club owner, Tommy Gilmour, once again put together an event that was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended, and Mr Gilmour himself must have been pleased after all four home corner fighters went on to gain victories over their respective opponents.
Showcased in the evenings bouts were Light-Welterweights Mike Reid and Stuart Green, Light-Middleweight Vinnie Baldassara and the Heavyweight Ian Millarvie.
It was Millarvie who was the main focal point of the evening as he looked to add to the third round stoppage he scored over journeyman Mal Rice in what was Millarvie's pro debut three weeks ago. On that night Millarvie firmly established himself as an immediate crowd favourite, and so by popular demand he was back once again in the St. Andrews ring.
On this occasion Swadlincote trialhorse Luke Simpkin was cast in the role of the durable opponent hoping to de-rail the progress of a train that Scottish fight fans hope can lead to the green pastures of British title success. Having previously been in with other highly touted prospects such as Roman Greenburg, Simpkin was a good choice of opponent for the former amateur star's second outing in the paid ranks.
Right from the opening bell, Millarvie looked to utilise his massive reach advantage as he speared Simpkin's shaven head with a stiff jab, and looked to work behind it with hooks to the head and body. It was a tactic that looked to be working well from the outset as Simpkin found himself on the receiving end of some solid hooks after ducking to avoid the ramrod jab of his opponent.
Simpkins crouched stance made things awkward for the Hamilton Heavyweight who found himself predominantly punching down low, but he was shorting his hooks well and making Simpkins pay for coming in too close.
After taking a right cross and a left hook to the body, Simpkin launched an immediate counter offensive but Millarvie fleet of foot and moved out of harms way with impressive ease.
Millarvie's trainer, John McDermott, urged his man to use the jab more in round two, and that's exactly what he did as he kept his opponent at arms length, aided by his straight right hand down the middle. It was this combination that momentarily hurt Simpkin along the ropes, but also one that made him make sure Millarvie was on his toes as he flashed in a counter right that kept his Scottish opponent "honest". *
Having taken the shot as a pointer to keep his hands up, Millarvie got back behind his boxing and before the round's end he hurt Simpkin again with a one-two combination that was this time followed by a right uppercut.
Round three began with Simpkin getting warned for carrying his head too low, and then it continued in much the same "jabfest" style as its predecessor.
As Simpkin bobbed to try to avoid the oncoming jab halfway through the round, he was met with a big left hook which cracked off his face and forced him to hold onto his opponent to rule out anything else getting through.
After breaking from this clinch one sensed that Millarvie just began to get complacent with his defence and it was a theory which Simpkin confirmed when he took advantage of his opponent's low right hand and landed a sharp left hook of his own. The punch had plenty behind it, but with Millarvie leaning back away from the punch a lot of its effect was neutralised.
The lesson had still not been learned in the fourth as again Millarvie got sloppy with his defence and this let Simpkin crash home a big right hook, but all credit to Millarvie who didn't even so much as blink after the punch. He was still building up the points behind his jab, but now when he came in behind it he was getting caught with single shot counters because of his low held guard. Most notable of the Simpkin counters was a right hook to the body and then a right hook to the head towards the end of another round which Millarvie still put in the bank.
In round five Simpkin seemed to have been re-energised by his modest success in the previous round, and set about taking the fight to his foe. Using wide hooks, Simpkin was virtually screaming to get picked off a long range and Millarvie had no problem obliging his opponent. Again, whenever Simpkins got in too close Millarvie would use his feet well to get out of the way and land a left-right combination. But again Millarvie got caught by silly hooks as he left himself open after landing good work of his own.
The final round followed suit with the only difference being that Millarvie was more inclined to sit behind his jab and not rush in as much.
At the end of the bout the crowd showed their vociferous appreciation for both men and the verdict from referee Vic Loughlin was announced as 60-54 in the favour of hometown man Millarvie.
Although the fight was against better opposition than in his debut, Millarvie looked to be a bit flat and lacking in sharpness in this contest, words which were echoed by one of Millarvie's seconds, Benny King.
Fight of the night went to the fantastic six-two minute rounds Light-Welterweight contest between Aberdeen's Mike Reid and Penrith's Tom Hogan.
It was a fight that looked as if it was never going to go the distance after Reid tore into Hogan from the first bell. Reid was able to find his way inside without too much fuss and then set about ripping in hooks to the body and booming right uppercuts, leaving Hogan bleeding profusely from the nose by the round's end. Hogan tried to fire back when he was cornered, but the excellent punch variety that Reid showed kept his man pinned along the ropes for a lot of the opening two minutes.
Hogan showed tremendous courage though and fought back strongly in rounds two and three. With Reid now having trouble closing the range, the man from Cumbria popped out his jab and set-up the straight right hand which he used to great effect. When Reid did get inside he found himself getting outworked to the body by the gutsy Hogan who at this stage was again bleeding from the nose.
With Reid getting picked off from the outside, he had to be content to take a few shots before he could get inside the spindly arms of Hogan to land his own artillery.
The Aberdonian had better success in rounds four and five as he managed to get on the inside of his opponent and thump home hooks downstairs, before sending in the uppercuts to knock back his opponent's head.
Hogan was still leaning away and countering Reid, but this was becoming a dwindling occurrence, and Hogan now had bruising and swelling around his bottom lip.
One slow counter from Hogan in the fifth saw Reid jump on him with a two handed assault that definitely had Hogan in trouble, but again he dug deep and found the energy to fire back. Indeed, he fired back so well that he did enough to take what was a close round on my card.
Hogan started fast with the jab in the sixth and final round as Reid continued to come straight in and look for the body shots. Reid had his moments in the round, especially a straight right-straight left-right uppercut combination that banged into the now very marked and bloodied face of Hogan. Once more Hogan came back strong though, and he was on top again before the round was out.
The referee Paul Graham scored the contest 58-57 in favour of Reid, saying that he had it even going into number six, but gave it to Reid as he felt a lot of Hogan's shots were slaps. My own scorecard had the fight level at 57-57, by virtue of scoring round six for Hogan.
In the show opener Glenrothes Light-Welter Stuart Green took on the ultra-experienced journeyman, Peter Buckley. It was a fairly one-sided contest, but Buckley did just enough to make sure it wasn't a complete walkover.
The opening round saw a tentative Green come out flicking the jab with not a lot of substance behind it. He seemed content to find his range in the first couple of rounds, but whenever he got too close Buckley shot over a right cross to tell his man that he was alive in this fight and had no intention of lying down.
Certainly, when Green finally did commit himself to any attacks he had Buckley firing back at him in the first few rounds. But as the rounds progressed, Green bashed away at the Buckley body and lowered the workrate of his opponent accordingly.
Whilst never in any real distress, Buckley did ship some solid combination blows from Green, who towards the end really fancied the job. Buckley made it interesting by punishing Green whenever he got sloppy or lazy, but never provided much else and it was no surprise to hear Referee Graham's verdict of 59-56 being awarded to Green.
The show closer witnessed the only stoppage of the night as Clydebank's Vinnie Baldassara took on Cafu Santos from Welling Borough in a six-twos contest made at the Light-Middleweight limit.
Santos came out in a herky-jerky style guard that looked to be an awkward nightmare for Baldassara who initially had a problem deciding on his plan of attack as Santos plodded forward constantly moving.
Santos used his long reach well to poke in three straight shots to Baldassara's body and then to jab his opponent as he chased Baldassara into a corner.
Having been content to simply avoid Santos for most of the opener, Baldassara then decided that the body was going to give him the best counter measure to his opponent's style. He found truth in his belief just before the end of the opening stanza as he hurt Santos with a right hook to the body.
With Santos holding his guard up high in the second, it seemed logical that Baldassara would again look downstairs for his success. When Santos trapped him in a corner he managed to bob and weave his way out of danger before crushing in two rib-benders that made Santos retreat.
Baldassara followed up the attack with another left hook to the body that just took all the wind out of Santos' sails, and a right hook to the head - left hook to the body combination was enough to snap the masts and resign Santos to the murky blue depths of the ring canvas where he was counted out by referee Vic Loughlin at the 1:47 mark of round two.
Thanks to Tommy Gilmour and the Holiday Inn for their tremendous hospitality and their continued involvement in staging superb boxing dinner shows that are enjoyed by so many.
Many thanks to Gavin McLeod at ringside for the above coverage