Bethnal Green’s historic York Hall was the venue for an intriguing Friday Fight Night courtesy of Barry Hearn’s Matchroom promotions. Topping the bill were two separate challenges for vacant titles and both match-ups posed important questions of the fighters and their careers.
Battling for the vacant European heavyweight title was Essex-based Pole Albert Sosnowski (right) and Italian Paolo Vidoz. Both fighters have been challenging towards the top of the European contenders for the last few years, however the fight on Friday marked very different points in their respective careers.
For 39 year-old Vidoz, it was his third attempt at the title in his last four fights having lost to both Sinan Samil Sam and Matt Skelton last year. He is a fighter who has never really done it at the top level, losing to Nikolai Valuev in 2004 and Vladimir Virchis in another two European title fights. Nevertheless he has held and defended the title on a number of occasions and has been very much the gatekeeper to the top spot at European level.
In this sense, Vidoz was the perfect opponent for popular Pole Albert Sosnowski. Sosnowski, despite having had some 47 fights to date, is only 30. Relatively young for a heavyweight, particularly when you consider reigning WBC champion Vitali Klitschko is 38, as is potential future opponent Audley Harrison. His victory over Danny Williams last year suggested he was ready to step up to a higher quality of opposition more regularly and should he harbour any ambitions at a higher a level, victory over Vidoz was really a pre-requisite.
Certainly the Sosnowski fans saw it as a big fight for their man, turning out in big numbers and even bigger voice to lend their support. Sosnowski started fast too, looking to assert his jab and outwork Vidoz with quick combinations. Vidoz is a tidy, if limited fighter and not an easy man to open up but Sosnowski used a good variety of shots to land with uppercuts and bunches of punches. The fifth round in particular was a superb round for the Pole as he landed a right that rocked Vidoz and marked a turning point in the fight.
Vidoz seemed tired by the sixth round and didn’t really seem to display the belief in himself having failed to deal with the speed and volume of his opponent’s punches. From that point on it was clear Sosnowski had control of the fight and, bar the occasional rally from Vidoz, it was the Pole doing all the work. A competitive last round saw Vidoz try to exchange but Sosnowski kept assured and saw out a confident and comfortable points victory.
All three judges scored the fight to Sosnowski, 117-111, 119-109 & 120-108 for a unanimous points decision that hands the Pole the European title. It was an important victory and one that establishes him as a genuine contender at the top of the tree in Europe. Whether he can move on from that level remains to be seen but what is certain is should Prizefighter champion Audley Harrison hold genuine ambitions on the world scene, Sosnowski is undoubtedly the man he must beat.
Earlier in the night, another Prizefighter competitor Carl Dilks had a shot at the vacant Commonwealth Super-middleweight title against Ghanaian Charles Adamu (right). Dilks had fought the majority of his career above the 168lbs super-middleweight limit and was given only three-and-a-half weeks notice to prepare for the fight. Meanwhile Adamu had not fought for 15 months following a points loss to Isaac Chilemba year.
As such, it was always going to be a tricky fight for both fighters and neither really ever established any control over the bout. Adamu looked wild at times and his timing was some way off as he looked to fire in hooks to the head of Dilks. Dilks, in contrast, looked neat and tidy and moved well on the back foot making use of his height and reach advantage to land some crisp jabs throughout.
Nevertheless, Dilks was never really able to deter the Ghanaian who kept moving forwards and throwing, though often missing, for all twelve rounds. A bad cut under the right eye of Dilks after a head clash in the eighth was indicative of some messy middle rounds as the Liverpudlian’s early good footwork and movement began to stutter. Indeed, other than a stirring final round from Dilks, Adamu did seem to be narrowly on top in the second half on the fight and the judges may well have been swayed by that swing in momentum to edge the fight to Adamu.
As it was, the Ghanaian snatched a tight split decision 116-113, 113-115 & 115-114 to claim the vacant Commonwealth title and put his faltering career back on track. For Dilks, defeat will no doubt be hard to take, and he may well rue not doing more offensive work in the early half of the fight. However, the 26 year-old is still young, was unlucky to lose, and will no doubt benefit from the experience in future contests.
"I'm only 26 and I can still come again and hopefully try to get a rematch and set the record straight" said Dilks.
“In the last round, I thought I'd done just enough to win it. I thought it was very close going into the last minute - we needed a big round.
"I think I boxed the right fight. Maybe I should have been moving my head a little bit more but I've only had three-and-a-half weeks notice and I've done 12 rounds."
Elsewhere on the bill, super-bantamweight Matthew Marsh won a six round tune-up against Marc Callaghan ahead of his British title fight with Jason Booth in February. Marsh took the contest 59-55 but it was a scrappy affair and the West Ham man did suffer a cut above the right eye that will need to heal up over the next few weeks. Giuseppe Lauri won a comfortable points decision 60-53 dropping opponent Janos Petrovics in the sixth and final round with a snappy left-right combination, Prince Arron faded down the stretch and drew with Richie Woodhall trained Max Maxwell 57-57 in another six rounder, and exciting new prospect Chris Evangelou delighted his huge following with a classy 40-37 four round points win on his debut.
