Tommy Owens Promotions hosted their final show of the season at Villa Park on Saturday, with a seven fight bill that certainly delivered a great deal of entertainment for fortunate fight fans in at-tendance.
The main attraction was Birmingham’s WBC international middleweight champion Craig Cunningham, who sharpened his tools in a six round decision victory over William Warburton.
The bout was routine for Cunningham, who calmly and confidently backed up his subdued opponent with a powerful southpaw jab, before landing almost freely with sharp shots to body and head.
Although remaining active in six round contests is beneficial to Cunningham, the middleweight doesn’t hide his lust for big fights, notably calling out British champion Tommy Langford.
It’d be justifiable for Cunningham to feel frustrated that he is still yet to reap the rewards from his spectacular upset victory over Anthony Ogogo last October, nonetheless, the powerful Birmingham southpaw’s resoluteness, means it is inevitable that in the not too distant future, he will force him-self back into the big fights where he belongs.
Also on the card, Frank Warren’s highly touted super-bantamweight Brad Foster suffered an sur-prise setback, drawing against Brett Fidoe in a six round contest. The resilient Fidoe never allowed Foster to settle and it wasn’t hard to see why he represented a step up for the former amatuer star, who no doubt will view the result as a massive disappointment. However, at just 19 years of age, the gruelling contest with the much more experienced Fidoe, will undoubtedly provide Foster with a very necessary learning curve as he progresses in his career.
That wasn’t the sole upset of the night however, as Lewis Van Poetsch earned an unlikely stop-page victory over Jordan Lynch. Despite Lynch looking comfortable for much of the first round, the thudding backhand of the naturally bigger Van Poetsch proved efficacious in bringing a halt to the contest.
In an enthralling Middleweight contest, fan favourite Kelcie Ball maintained his unbeaten record with a victory over Telford’s Kieron Gray. The superior movement and speed of Ball was evident as he dominated the middle of the ring for the majority of the contest, easing to a sixth consecutive victory.
The crowd were also treated to a quality bout involving the highly rated former unlicensed fighter, Ishmael Ellis, who continued his impressive venture into professional boxing, extending his un-beaten record to five contests with a hard fought victory over Yorkshire’s Danny Little.
In what was a relatively scrappy contest, rangy cruiserweight Shakan Pitters comfortably extended his unbeaten record, winning every round of his second professional contest against the game Lat-vian Jevgenijs Andrejev.
In the evening’s opening contest, super-lightweight prospect Jack O’Keefe earned his third profes-sional victory, outpointing Matthew Ashmore over four rounds.
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