Colin back on the right Lynes
Former British and European light-welter champ Colin Lynes made his welcome return to the ring, against former British and Commonwealth champion Bradley Pryce, at the Matchroom Sports promoted John Watson-Anthony Crolla clash. In spite of being designated as the opponent Colin showed that the ten months out of the sport had not affected him one iota, neither had the move to welterweight, if anything it improved his performance in the later rounds.
Considering Bradley Pryce had been in championship training, for a shot at Sam Webb’s British light-middleweight crown, Colin easily dominated the first five rounds with crisp jabs and heavy straight rights. (In fact, on the BoxRec forum, Pryce cites this very reason as contributing to his loss. Bradley says he was only given three days notice to lose weight - he boxed at 150lbs - and that this took its toll - Ed.)
Pryce came back strong in the sixth and tried to bully his way through Colin. Pryce won his first round of the contest by being by far more assertive than he had in the early rounds as well as landing some telling shots. More of the same came in the seventh and at one time Pryce managed to corral Colin on the ropes. Pryce’s late charge was paying dividends but at this point he really needed a knockout to stand any chance of securing the win. Pryce kept the pressure up in the final round but Colin was savvy and just plain boxed his way to a well earned points victory.
“I’m really, really pleased," said Lynes. "It was a calculated risk but we knew we were right in ourselves and knew I was ready for up to ten rounds. So it’s all good and it’s onwards and upwards and we’ll start looking for titles. I well won it, but I was treated like the away fighter. I think they thought that he would deal with me or get me out of there. A lot of boxing people thought the same, as it was my first fight back in nearly a year.
"Bradley was getting ready for Sam Webb so he was sort of championship training. People were hoping I would be capable of dealing with him but realistically I think a majority of people thought he would deal with me or get me out of there. He started to come back in the middle rounds a bit. His corner told him to go out there and get this kid out of there so he had a round or two where he tried to be the bully again but Jimmy instructed me to get back out there and take command of the centre ring, so I did.
"There’s still loads to be done, that’s just with me being with Jimmy and Mark since the summer. They’ve just been getting me into shape and now they're talking about getting me back into the gym soon and getting down to some proper championship training, so I’m only going to take a couple of weeks out and then I’ll be back in the gym and next time I’ll be a lot better.”
Image courtesy Rio di Caro
