Haskins hammers Vasilev; Blackwell 'bang bangs' Loginovs

Bristol’s Lee Haskins finally returned to the ring at the Olympiad Leisure Centre in Chippenham as he put aside his European frustrations to stop Yordan Vasilev at 1:31 of the fourth round to headline Keith Mayo’s latest promotion last night.

Haskins' mooted affair with the Italian Andrea Sarritzu for the EBU title had of course failed to materialize on no less than four occasions and the reigning British and Commonwealth super-flyweight king was forced to mark time against imported opposition. Considering the circumstances then and also the fact that Lee was conceding almost ten pounds in weight, the result was pleasing.

Haskins was calm but aggressive as he patiently picked the right spots in which to spring his coiled attacks. A right hand and left hook sent Vasilev down in the second and Lee was collected and patient when trying to force home his advantage conclusively. The Eastern European was rocking in the third as Lee was finding clever and unorthodox angles to shake the visitor.

When the focused Haskins started to put in little more mustard on his shots in the fourth, the larger man caved in. A hard left-right-left floored his man for the mandatory eight, then when one further left hook when the action resumed again floored Vasilev, Clarke Joslyn correctly stopped the affair.

Manager Chris Sanigar stated after the bout that Lee’s goal is now to claim a Lonsdale belt outright.

Reigning English middleweight king Nick “Bang Bang” Blackwell from Trowbridge warmed up for next month’s defence against Matt Hainy by stopping Riga’s Andrejs Loginovs in the fourth of a scheduled six-threes. Blackwell, still only 20 years old, started fast and put together rapid flurries of three and four punches. He throws combinations well and always seemed to punctuate each cluster with at least one or two heavy shots.

The Latvian was starting to wilt as early as the second round as the Wiltshire man connected with hard left hooks. At the close of the session, he sighed and trudged back to his corner. Loginovs started to drop his hands after getting caught to the body in the third and gave away a wince of pain. Just before the bell Blackwell banged in a massive right hand that he didn’t have enough time to follow up on - but the storm was coming for the Latvian.

The end came at 1:46 of the fourth as Blackwell’s body attack proved too much for the visitor. He connected with a right hand downstairs, saw his man in distress and then instantly floored his man by connecting in the same spot again. After he took the count, Blackwell went straight back downstairs and clubbed Loginovs with a left and the contest was rightly halted.

Swindon’s Andrew “Macca” McCaffrey scored his second win in the paid ranks but had to work very hard to overcome debutant Robert Studzinski in a six-twos at super middleweight. The Wales-based Pole cheekily took a share of the first on my card as he came forward into the taller man and found the target with short scoring punches. Macca attempted to turn up the heat on Studzenski in the second as he loaded up and often connected with very hard body shots. Looking far less well conditioned than his opponent, Studzinski didn’t seem troubled in the slightest and regularly piled forward aggressively into the house fighter.

Again, Robert had"Macca" on the backfoot in the third. Andrew did manage to connect with a long right and some jabs but failed to convince as he didn’t let his hands go enough. McCaffrey probably managed to pip his gutsy opponent over the last half of the fight, although he was forced to grit his teeth and work incredibly hard to get the win. Grant Wallis’ 60-56 card in McCaffrey’s favour was too wide in my opinion. Clarke Joslyn officiated the action from inside the ropes.

Swindon middleweight Kelvin Young moved to 7-1 (0) as he easily outpointed experienced Dean “The Dynamo” Walker over four, three-minute sessions. Walker looked very twitchy and nervous in the opener which was unusual for a man having his 46 paid start (12 wins, 30 losses, 3 draws). Kelvin wasn’t punch perfect in the first but did enough on my tally to take the round. As soon as Young settled down in the second, he boxed very sensibly in defensive mode and then would launch his attacking combinations when the opportunity arose. After getting tagged with a particularly heavy shot, Dean clubbed his chest and shouted at his opponent to try and repeat the trick. Dean plugged away in the third but really didn’t look threatening in the slightest. After missing a lot over the start of the session, Young started to hammer the body in the third and then scored with some classy left hooks to take a 40-37 point decision on Jeff Hinds’ card at the close.

Luckless Latvian Florians Strupits drifted away from his cruiserweight home and into the path of Swindon behemoth Noureddine Meddoune in a bout optimistically scheduled for six two-minute sessions. Obviously, Meddoune capitalised very quickly on his 55lbs weight advantage (18st 2lbs as opposed to 14st 3lbs) and floored the man from Riga with the first right hand he threw. Strupits didn’t seem in too much distress when referee Jeff Hinds stopped the fight at 1:14 of the round but the loser was almost certainly done a favour of compassion in advance. It was Meddoune’s third straight first round win.

Kingsteinton’s Jamie Speight returned to action after losing his unbeaten record to Nigel Wright in February as he outpointed Trowbridge’s Dan Carr over four three minute sessions at lightweight. Jamie, dubbed “The Genius” and now 8-1 (0), seemed slightly open and reckless in the first. He was hit on the break several times by his opponent and also had to navigate some harmful looking left hooks that were flying in his direction. Carr came forward in the second and it could be argued that Jamie was guilty of smothering his work. But Speight’s work started to fall into place more over the last two sessions as he connected with some hard left hooks and so simply so determind to get back to winning ways. Referee Jeff Hinds scored it 40-37 at the finish and Carr now dips to 1-11.

Dan Stewart made a successful return to the ring after 16 months out as he outpointed London-based Bulgarian Danny Dontchev over six-twos at welterweight. The lanky Stewart, covered in tattoos and very well supported, missed frequently in the opener but took the session purely on work rate. Danny was hit low in the second and when he looked to appeal to the referee he was clouted with a massive right hand for his trouble. For the most part, Dontchev used his experience to take the incoming leather on the gloves and launch his own replies when the opportunity arose. Stewart scored with some good bodywork in the third but had to take a low one that was clearly in direct retribution for the one he landed in the previous session. Dontchev pushed the house fighter over the final three sessions but was always a step behind for my money. He did have the satisfaction of hurting Stewart badly just before the close but it was a case of too little too late as Mr. Wallis scored the affair 59-56 in The Bristolian’s favour.

Fight of the night saw Ben Morrish from Plymouth get pipped by far more experienced Liam Richards over six two-minute rounds at lightweight. The official score was 58-57 in Richards' favour, but considering his opponent had a winning record and was far more experienced, Ben fought courageously and with no little skill, especially considering it was only his second paid start. The contest was fought at an electric pace with both men throwing lots of crowd pleasing aggressive leather. Richards’ marginally superior punching quality carried him through, but Morrish himself may well develop into an accomplished fighter over the coming years. Liam is now 10-1.