Beatriz Ferreria kicked off her British professional debut with confidence-building as she looks to make her mark within the professional ranks with a comfortable points win over Karla Ramos Zamora. Ferreria, who is a Tokyo Olympic silver medalist, stretches her record to 3-0 as a professional with a showing in which she built herself into and ultimately dominated and outclassed a brave Zamora. Ferreria, who is also attempting to qualify for the Paris Olympics, was physical throughout after causing a bloodied nose of Zamora in the opening round. Zamora, on several occasions in rounds four, six and the final round of a scheduled eight, ultimately held on to see the final bell. Referee Michael Alexander, who was scoring the contest, ruled the contest in Ferreria’s favour with a comfortable scorecard of 80-72.
That was followed up by a contest which went under the radar with a highly competitive contest on the bout sheet between the undefeated duo of Lewis Sylvester and Adam Cope in a contest for the vacant English lightweight title.
The opening round was a tale of two halves, with Sylvester happy to box on the outside and flick out the jab before coming on the inside to land the right. Cope, despite this, was composed and bided his time to close the distance and close the round strong with a number of body shots on the inside.
The second and the third followed the pattern of the first round with contrasting styles until round four when Cope scored a clear round with his front-footed nature, causing Sylvester to become uncomfortable in close exchanges and found himself regularly pinned by the left hand of Cope.
The fifth saw Cope build up his momentum despite Sylvester trying to continue to counter from the back foot. Cope was very impressive but simple with combinations as he failed not to miss on at least catching Sylvester with at least one shot in any exchange. The sixth frame was more competitive, with Sylvester landing some crisp counters as Cope started to negate the use of the jab following his success in rounds four and five.
The seventh saw Sylvester have his best round since the opening frame after the riot act was read to him by a very animated Stefy Bull, which could be seen from the ringside. Sylvester returned to boxing behind the jab and actually started to engage and take the lead which saw him have the better of the exchanges. However, a left hook in the remaining 10 seconds from Cope saw Sylvester halted in his tracks despite the improved performance.
The eighth saw Sylvester continue to pursue cope on the front foot and take the lead in the fight in momentum; however, Cope was able to land a big right counter again, halting Sylvester in his tracks, and in the final 30 seconds, a left hook from Cope again, had the same effect.
The ninth & tenth saw both men have their successes; however, the popular consensus ringside was that Cope had done more than enough to claim the win as his band of travelling brothers celebrated loudly.
After ten rounds of boxing, the scorecards read in favour of Lewis Sylvester with scores of 96-94x2 96-95, which was controversial, to say the least, with many ringside observers disagreeing with the judge's verdict.
Junaid Bostan continued his pursuit up the domestic ladder in a step-up contest over eight rounds against Ryan Amos. A comfortable affair for Bostan, the superior and much larger man on the night, with vocal support in the Utilita Arena. The scoring referee', Kieran McCann's scorecard read 79-73 in favour of Bostan, who really excelled in the final round with a number of big shots catching Amos, who was seeking to close the gap and smother the work of the talented Rotherham-based fighter.
The second title fight of the night followed between Hopey Price and James Beach Jnr, contesting the WBA continental super-featherweight title scheduled over ten rounds.
Price started proceedings confidently with the jab and kept Beech at bay with several one-two combinations. The round saw little comeback from his opponent.
Round two did see Beech attempt to take the middle of the ring. In the first minute the away fighter attempted some big left hooks, but Price saw them coming early. Beech tried his best to rough up proceedings but found himself, again, on the end of Price’s long jab and the odd right hand.
The third frame was a tame affair, with Price able to pick off Beach Jnr with the jab as he attempted to close the gap with the pattern following the same in the fourth as Price was able to place his shots seemingly in any position he wanted.
Rounds four and five saw Price hit his groove and kept a calm temperament as the Leeds-based Price started to offer varying angles to focus his work away from the head and more towards the body.
Six saw Price continue the momentum of his performance continue upwards as Beech struggled to land anything of note. The opening minute of round seven saw Price snap the head back of Beech Jnr with a long left along the ropes. Price was landing combinations at will against a tired Beech and at the conclusion of the seventh, Beech was pulled out of the contest by his corner team.
The chief support Pat McCormack would produce a highlight knockdown on way to a fourth round stoppage of Tony Dixon in a contest held at super-welterweight.
After a tentative opening frame, McCormack found his groove in the second before capitalising on a frailing Dixon with a number of combinations in the third frame of a scheduled ten rounds. The fourth saw McCormack increase the intensity of his attacks with Dixon eager to close down the Olympian. McCormack landed a huge straight right following a left hand at the end of the fourth of which Dixon landed heavily onto the canvas.
