Kris keeps his Masters belt
Paisley boxer Kris Carslaw retained his British Masters light middleweight belt with a ten-round points win over Ballyclare's Willie Thompson on the Chris Gilmour promoted show in Scotstoun Sports Centre on Saturday 5th March. This was not as sparkling as it could have been with the Paisley boxer exhibiting a bit too much show-boating for the more serious boxing fan and Thompson did make him work for the retention of his title.
Carslaw seemed to damage his hand in the fourth round, but all in all I suspect he wouldn't have been exactly ecstatic with his performance. Thompson was deducted a further point in the seventh for his use of his head and it wasn't to work out some mathematical formula.
The undercard had a further five bouts with probably the bout of the night being the one between light-middleweight Jamie McLevy of Whiteinch in Glasgow having to work every minute of every round, for a narrow points win over Kevin McCauley of Halesowen in the Midlands over eight rounds. The Glaswegian got the decision 77 - 76 and McCauley probably felt hard done by, as a draw would have been reasonable.
Paul McElhinney from Glasgow and Gareth Stemp from Edinburgh was always going to have added spice with the old East/West thing over four rounds. Paul is a no-nonsense come forward fighter and Stemp was just having his third pro outing with Paul Weir in the corner. The East came out top in this one as Stemp claimed a narrow 39-38 decision.
Steven Sharoudi from Motherwell had a shut-out against Matt Seawright from Tamworth over 6x2 at light-welter. Seawright's spoiling tactics won him no friends here and this was messy from the off! Sharoudi won at a canter by the score of 60-54.
Eddie Doyle from Glenboig was matched with Sid Razak of Birmingham over eight-twos. Light-welter Doyle won comfortably with an 80 - 72 margin. That's twice in a week that Sid has boxed in Scotland, as I saw him in Aberdeen last Saturday on the Lee McAllister undercard, and I asked him if this is how he wants really to earn a living? He struck me as a really nice guy, but the defeats are totting up with montonous regularity (this was Razak's 59th in 65 fights).
Local hero Robert "Rocky" Wright from Yoker and Adam Hutchison from Darlington served up better fare, as Rocky tried hard to stop his North East of England opponent to please his massive home support. He did get to Hutchison in round four but Adam was saved by the bell. The fifth round though did see Wright eventually get his man to force the stoppage.
My thanks to Mick Roberts snr of Forgewood fame for his comments, operating in "loco parentis" for me up here in the frozen North.
