Walsh shows grit to capture first professional title
Liam Walsh overcame a middle rounds crisis to capture the vacant Commonwealth super-featherweight title with a unanimous points victory over Ghana’s Maxwell Awuku at York Hall in Bethnal Green on Saturday night.
The 24-year-old Walsh’s margin of victory on the cards (119-111, 117-112 and 117-113) suggested a comfortable victory but the prospect from Cromer in Norfolk had to battle through some anxious moments in rounds six and seven as Awuku looked on the verge of overwhelming him.
With only nine professional outings behind him, having never travelled beyond six rounds or made the super-featherweight championship limit previously, this never looked like a foregone conclusion to me as some had predicted against an uncompromising opponent who had lost only one of his previous 22.
For the first five rounds, Team Walsh’s gamble looked an astute one as Liam (9st 3 ¼ lbs) bamboozled the Ghanaian with some neat movement and switch-hitting off the back foot. Awuku (9st 2 ¼ lbs) finally awoke from his slumber as he began to stalk Walsh with more urgency and a left hook in the sixth bounced off the Cromer prospect’s jaw as he started to get clipped more regularly with jolting shots inside.
In the seventh, Awuku attempted to practically bulldoze Walsh to the canvas as he purposefully marched forward throwing leather in all directions as Liam ducked, rolled and ultimately retreated to the ropes to escape the avalanche. There looked a real possibility that Walsh, now bleeding from the nose, was suddenly in too deep here with five rounds still remaining.
Despite having stopped seven of his nine opponents, Walsh doesn’t appear to be a genuine banger and he paid the price for remaining static and in punching range against the stronger Awuku. Some choice words from trainer Graham Everett at the end of the seventh helped Walsh to regroup as he sensibly elected not to get involved for the remainder of the contest.
Awuku continued to wade forward but with gradually less intensity as the Ghanaian began to tire from his previous exertions. Walsh, showing maturity to complement his earlier resolve, picked him off with some fleeting counters to take a deserved decision to the delight of his animated supporters.
If winning the Commonwealth title was hard for Walsh, the talented Cromer man may find it even harder to hold onto as there will certainly be no shortage of challengers for the title that was previously the property of WBO champion Ricky Burns. The likes of British champion Gary Sykes, European ruler Stephen Foster Jr, English boss Anthony Crolla, Carl Johanneson, Scott Lawton, Andy Morris, Paul Truscott and Derry Matthews, to name just a selection will be monitoring Walsh’s progress with interest. The naturally confident Walsh will fancy his chances with all of the aforementioned however after showing no shortage of skill and grit to register. a career-best victory.
On an impressive night for the Walsh brothers, super-bantamweight Michael Walsh maintained his 100% knockout ratio by stopping Ian Bailey at 2.14 of the first round following three knockdowns to move to 8-0 (8). In contrast, featherweight Ryan Walsh had to be content with a points win over eight as he easily defeated James Ancliff (80-73) to extend his unbeaten record to 11—0 (4).
