Swindon’s Marlon marches on

Hometown middleweight Marlon Reid impressively returned to winning ways last night (December 4) at Swindon’s Oasis leisure centre as he floored Tooting-based Pole Pawel Trebinski twice on the way to a convincing 59-53 six-round victory.

The former ABA finalist Reid lost his unbeaten record last time out against Patrick Mendys in Torquay. A chest infection was cited as having hindered the 27-year-old’s below-par performance. Last night however, the local fighter returned to his prior explosive form as his right hand twice floored the visitor in a destructive first stanza.

Pawel, now 2-5-1 (0), was in desperate trouble and did extremely well to survive the opening three minutes as Marlon whipped in dangerous shots with his hands-down style. To add to his troubles, Trebinski had a cut on the bridge of his nose.

Smelling a stunning result, Reid was over-anxious in the second and Trebinski regularly capitalised with a jab that connected with the house fighter far too often. Worryingly, a left hand from Pawel caused a reaction in Reid’s legs as ringsiders raised their eyebrows and sensed an interesting turn around.

Marlon often started sessions from a southpaw stance to give his man something to think about, before reverting back and punishing his aggressive come-forward opponent with long stinging punches.

Reid, 5-2 (1), boxed well off the back foot and clearly bettered the game Trebinski over the later half of the contest. However, his defensive deficiencies will need to be addressed if he is going to be moved up in class successfully.

Baby-faced and red-haired lightweight Chris Higgs delighted his legion of vocal fans by widely outpointing Sheffield “Alley Cat” Daniel Thorpe 60-55 over six-twos.

Thorpey did his regular routine of old-manning and mucking the house fighter about. The 32-year-old really is a master of showing angles, mugging and moving to earn his regular paydays.

Higgs, a former England international and still unbeaten at 6-0 (1), is a neat boxer with a decent workrate. who made the fight last night. Although he made the fight, the Lydney 22-year-old found the former Wincobank warrior hard to hit cleanly and had to settle for a distance win.

Swindon’s Kelvin Young traded in his vest last night as he outpointed known-quantity Jamie Ambler over six rounds at super-middle.

Kelvin had a distinguished 11-year career with Penhill Royal British Legion ABC which saw him claim a Western Counties Junior title and looked the part in his first start against the experienced Welshman.

Kelvin took the first three rounds clearly on my card as he showed good defence, movement and workrate delivering his punches in sharp twos and threes. By the third, the tall and rangy Ambler was marked under the left eye and looked a tired fighter.

To his credit, Jamie blocked well in the fourth and fifth and gave the debutant plenty to think about in the last as he pinned his man in the corners and on the ropes and let his hands go. If he’d boxed in similar fashion from the off, the result would have been very different.

As it was, the third man scored a slightly too-wide 59-55 for Young which delighted the hometown crowd.

Bristol’s heavily-tattooed Dan Stewart seemed a little fortunate to emerge a 58-56 point victor over Mark McCullough in a light-welter six threes.

On paper this was the fight of the night. Stewart was 6-2 (1) going in and his opponent also had a winning pre-fight tally at 5-4 (2). In addition, McCullogh boasted a decent amateur pedigree which culminated in him winning several Home Counties titles.

Mark, looking ripped and muscular, took the first on my card. He scored with hard right hands over the top and a selection box of punches downstairs which must have took some steam out of the Bristol boxer.

The trim and fit 23-year-old replied well in the second, catching the eye with some excellent left uppercuts through the guard of McCullogh. Despite acquiring some damage under the left eye, Mark’s dangerous right hands returned well in the third to make their mark on the scores.

The pair were both boxing well by the fourth. Those left uppercuts were having their effect from Stewart, but Mark was staying right with him and scoring with thumping right hands which caused Dan to look surprised and hold his man.

McCullogh pressured and punished Stewart for leaning back from shots, but Dan seemed to have his number by the end of the fifth. However, Dan would let his hands drift low too often in the last and the aggressive 26-year-old scored well with lefts to the body and right hands over the top. By the final bell, Mark was beginning to rough his man up inside.

Stewart was gracious in victory when the verdict went his way, saying “He was a very very good fighter indeed”.

Former British middleweight kickboxing champion Andrew “Macca” McCaffrey failed to make a winning start to his start to his career under the Marquis of Queensbury’s rules as he was outpointed 59-57 by Welshman Adam Wlicox in a six-round affair at super-middle.

One thing is clear though, this new recruit to Keith Mayo’s Horseshoe gym packs a dangerous wallop. Thuds of leather against Wilcox’s bulky frame echoed around the hall as Wilcox was forced to work in between concussive storms of punches.

McCaffrey seemed to take the opening two sessions. Although he missed with a lot of shots, he was making the fight and it seemed as if Wilcox was drifting into survival mode.

However, it was Adam who coped with his tiredness better as the bout wore on. He scored well inside, most notably with right uppercuts and left hooks. A lot of McCaffery’s work with the right wouldn’t have counted on the referee’s card, as he regularly held his opponent around the head with his left.

In the fourth, “Macca” smothered his punches by trying to punch when too close to his man and in the fifth the visibly-tired Wilcox was still taking the fight to the stronger McCaffrey. Andrew landed well with a crisp left right in the last, but Wilcox repaid him with the same combination instantly.

Devon’s 21-year-old Jamie Speight is a classy customer to keep your eye on in future. He exhibited some lovely footwork and defensive moves, as well as a broad selection box of punches in shutting out Birmingham’s Sid Razak over six in a lightweight four-threes.

The ex-Royal Marine does carry his hands dangerously low on occasion which gave his corner cause for concern, but mostly his movement and fast hands were too much for Razak.

For his part, Razak did manage to punish his man for pulling straight back from punches on occasion, but the quality was from Jamie throughout.

Finally Swindon-based Pole Alicja Dabrowska made a winning start to her paid career as she weathered a bloody nose to take a 39-37 verdict from Bulgarian veteran Svelta Taskova over four flyweight rounds.

Despite looking like a pocket-sized eastern European housewife, the 38-year-old from Sofia has shared the ring with “Killer Queen” Susi Kentikian (L TKO 2 in October 2005) and star Regina Helmich twice (L PTS 10 in NOV 2001 and L TKO 6 July 2003) amongst her 32 starts. So whilst not winning the big ones, she seemed to have experience on her side at the very least.

Alicja however looked impressive and hurt Taskova several times. The pole was far stronger physically (weighing 4lbs more). Consequently, she was able to bully her opponent and walk through shoots to land her own. Taskova drops to 4-28-1 (1).