Rasani upsets Williams; Mcguire hammers Rozhakmens

Birmingham-based Zimbabwean Hastings Rasani stretched his current winning streak to three as he shut out Streatham’s Leon Williams over four threes on Left Jab’s latest “Winter Warriors” promotion at the York Hall on Sunday night.

Rasani outworked the muscular Williams in the opener. He scored with a prolific jab and countered well sitting on the ropes with hooks and uppercuts. And as early as the second, the formally unbeaten Londoner was getting cuffed around and starting to look significantly discouraged. Leon received a verbal shellacking from his chief second as the team tried to rally their man.

In the third, the pair delighted the York Hall crowd by slugging it out. Leon missed a straight shot and then was forced to take a storm of hooks and uppercuts in return. The former Fitzroy Lodge fighter was over-eager to turn the tide in the last as he charged forward into leather. It was Leon’s first loss in four starts. Ken Curtis refereed.

Cruiserweight Hastings, now 23-43-4 (4), has been stopped nineteen times in a career that has drifted from being a Commonwealth title challenger to an oft-beaten journeyman. However, he does have wins over Neil Linford and Bruce Scott on his ledger and his latest win comes of the back of two excellent victories over hardmen JJ Ojuederie and brawler Billy Boyle.

Romford’s Billy Slate outpointed shorter and lighter James Tucker over four rounds at light heavyweight.

Slate, trained by Jason Rowland and 1-0 (0), produced all the quality work in the early rounds which saw his defensive opponent almost completely refrain from throwing any shots at all.

Only in the third did Tucker start to respond with some meaningful punches of his own. But in general, Slate easily outworked the Doncaster fighter with jabs, hooks to the body and long right hands. At the close, referee Richie Davies scored it 39-37. Tucker drops to 1-22-2 (0)

Twenty-year-old former amateur star Michael McGuire registered his second quick win in five starts (all wins) as he halted hapless Brummie Sergey Rozhakmens after 1:25 of the first round.

Sergey barely landed a decent punch as he was battered with jabs, hooks and uppercuts in Mcguire’s opening whirlwind attack.  Referee Curtis dived in as Rozakmens was taking a pounding on the ropes. Whilst clearly not Michael’s fault, this one wasn’t competitive enough for the former England international and European gold medallist. It was scheduled for four at super bantam.

Romford’s aptly-named Tony Conquest looked impressive as he forced a corner retirement of normally durable Nick “The Ox” Okoth at the end of the first in a slated four threes at cruiser.

Tony, dubbed “The Conqueror” , had set his man up well to the body and then Okoth was stunned by three cracking rights upstairs before taking hard a string of head shots whilst offering nothing in reply. He staggered badly back to his corner with a face splattered with crimson and his corner rightly pulled him out.  It was Conquest’s second win in as many fights and his first inside schedule.

Another Alumni of the Fitzroy Martin Welsh boxed well as he forced a third round stoppage of Scunthorpe’s Steve Spence of a slated four threes at light middle.

The end came at 2:28 of the round as Spence was being overwhelmed in a neural corner after a largely one-sided affair. Welsh, a two-time London champion in the unpaid code and now 3-0 (1) as a pro, produced all the quality as his opponent’s shots fell consistently short. He’d hurt his man badly with a pair of right hands in the second and stopped the overmatched Spence in the next.

Hammersmith –based Iraqi Ali Adams stepped up in class last night and was only partially successful as he was held to a 38-38 draw by Tyrone Wright on referee Ken Curtis’ card in a heavyweight four rounder.

The muscular Adams, now 8-2-2 (2), tried to march forward in the opener but was largely ineffective as Matt Scriven’s fighter caught him with jabs and turned the contest into a wrestling match.

Ali was punished for keeping his left low in the second as Tyrone got his shots off well as Adam tried to come in. Adam’s seemed to lack impetus and drive despite being on a winning run of seven going in.

Wright found himself trapped in the corner as Adams did his best work in the third. After the pair opened the session with a close range slugging match, Tyrone recovered well to take the fourth on my card. By this stage Adams was tired and falling into clinches, fighting with his mouth agape. Ali came off second best as Wright scored with rights over the top and solid left hooks. Wright, a former English title challenger, is now 8-3-2 (3).

Stanford-Le-Hope’s “John” Wayne Hibbert moved to four unbeaten as he stopped tryer Bheki Moyo in two rounds in a scheduled four threes.

The Jason Rowland-trained fighter jabbed Bheki off balance countless times in the first and put the Earl Court fighter on his backside with the same shot at the close of the session. After the break, Moyo was rocking and stumbling around consistently when a left floored him heavily and the fight was thankfully waved off at 2:36. Richie Davies was the third man.

Northolt’s Ryan Toms had to fight his heart out to take a 39-37 verdict on referee Ken Curtis’ tally as he faced stubborn resistance from the deceptively-strong Ryan Clarke in a four-round light-middleweight contest.

A former QPR and Carlton youth player, the unbeaten Toms took the first by scoring prolifically with straight right hands. However, Clarke scored with his own long straight right in the second and managed to get a reaction out of Toms’ legs.  Clarke, from Waddington and 1-2-2 (0), covered well and looked very dangerous with his long and straight counter punches. At the end of the session, both smiled at each other, knowing that they were in a great, well-balanced small hall sizzler.

Toms was punishing Clarke for thinking too much in the third and landed some eye-catching and hurtful straight right hands and left hooks to the body. To his credit, Clarke gave it a real go in the last and landed with his right several times, but Toms stayed on top of his man with a classy right uppercut and left hand as his opponent’s chin was far too high.

Finally, Thamesmead’s Nathan Weise opened the show by taking every session against Woodford’s Duncan Cottier in a four round super-middleweight contest.

The first was forgetful and drew heckles of boredom from the gallery. Cottier took the second on my card, moving Weise’s legs with a left hand and aggressively controlling centre ring. However, the lanky and long-armed Weise managed to connect with quality left uppercuts and right hands to take verdict. Nathan moves to 5-1-1 (1) and Cottier is 3-56-3 (1).