Campbell and Saunders notch wins in Sheffield

Rob McCracken’s amateur charges cracked on in their build up to London 2012 in this tournament featuring four of the Beijing’s Olympics top ten boxing nations; Kazakhstan, China, France and home nation GB.

This sparsely attended affair at Sheffield’s ever impressive home for amateur pugilists, was the finals day following the semi finals the previous Saturday. The action got under way just after 14:00 with Zhakipov Birzhan (Kaz) v Olympic Gold and World Champion Shiming Zou (China) in the 48kg category. It was a scrappy affair from start to finish and seemed more like a professional undercard opener than the honed skills we often expect in the amateur game. Zou seemed to edge the opener but there was little in it.

The second burst into life sporadically, with Zou throwing ten plus shots without response forcing the Birzhan to cover up and absorb most of these on his gloves. Not to be undone Zou went on to throw some body shots that landed crisply, and started to pull away in the middle of the round by controlling the pace which he stepped up comfortably by landing straight jabs and increasing his lateral movement. The contest's failure to flow was made more difficult by a referee who constantly stopped the action, although the regular grappling by the fighters also killed this as a spectacle.

The third was Birzhan’s best round despite the ref taking time out to have a good look at his ability to continue. He was game enough throughout but Zou was a notch above and won the contest 13-9.

The 57kg category saw Chinese national champion Jun Tan (China) take on Britain’s European champion Luke Campbell. The most exciting point of the opener saw Campbell getting his head guard readjusted, as he kept his opponent pinned back with his long but defensively effective jab.

The second was difficult to score even by the fickle computer scoring system prevalent in amateur fighting. However, call me a traditionalist, when a boxer lands a punch and his opponent touches down, that is, and always will be a knock down. This is exactly what happened when Campbell had his opponent down, but the referee failed to score it as such and let Tan recover. One can only assume it was an act of diplomacy following the previous bout's curious scoring decision.

Campbell pushed on to win 11-3, in what was a strangely wide margin considering Jun Tans endeavour, and seemingly scoring shots.

British World Bronze Medallist, Bradley Saunders took on Yelussinov Daniyar (Kaz) in the next bout at 64kg. Saunders got the best of some early exchanges and landed a big right over the top of the former World Junior Silver medallist's left hand guard. The rest of the first was the same as much of the afternoons opening rounds with both fighters sizing each other up. The Kazakh was having some success to the end of the first and the start of the second and sometimes beating the more aggressive Saunders to the punch. Saunders counteracted this by the big right over the top again landing. The exchanges where skilful but a bit too cautious to allow the bout to really take light.

The third saw Saunders talked too for a low blow that didn’t seem particularly low, but was the start of much complaining form his opponent. This signalled that Saunders was starting to grind down his man and there was not much coming back scoring or not. Daniyar went down with little pressure although it was judged a slip. The fight became scrappy in this last round as Saunders stepped up his rough style and bullied the taller man to win 6-3.

The 75kg final was the first of the day featuring a French competitor Tavares Nichel, the national champion take on Asian Gold medallist Jian Ting Zhang (China). Barely a clean shot landed in the opener, and the second barely needed intervention from the referee as not much was happening there either. Nichel looked to be edging it in the third due to his excellent back foot boxing and increasingly landing on the counter.

It was a surprise that this bout gave us the first ruled knock down of the afternoon, as Nichel landed a big left right on the button. From here on in Nichel realised he only had to maintain his effective back foot boxing, with which he did with admirable ease. He went on to coast to an 8-3 victory.

The 81kg final saw Kazakhstan national champion Serimov Almat take on Commonwealth Federation silver medallist Callum Johnson (GB). Callum Johnson seemed to be landing the more meaningful shots but the opener and start of the second where cautious affairs. It looked like the second was fizzling out to not much at all until Almat landed a big right that sent Johnson to the canvas. He was without doubt caught cold by this shot and never fully recovered. A further onslaught by the Kazak lead McCracken to throw in the towel, realising quickly it was not Johnson’s night.