Perez announces his arrival on the heavyweight scene after Prizefighter triumph

Cork-based Cuban Mike Perez impressively announced his arrival as a heavyweight force last night as he emerged as the winner of “The International Heavyweights” Prizefighter Series at London’s Alexandra Palace. The former top-class amateur dispatched giant American Tye “Big Sky” Fields in 42 seconds of a very one-sided conclusion to the popular round-robin tournament. Perez started the beginning of the end when a lead southpaw right caught Fields flush and Perez simply let a flurry of punches go with Tye disorganised in the corner. Only one or two landed but Howard Foster rescued the Canada-based American before “The Rebel” flattened him. It was perfect stoppage by the third man.

Perez kicked off the evening’s first quarter final in style as he used his well-honed southpaw boxing ability to floor and massively outclass Kertson Manswell 30-25 on the cards of all three officials. Kertson, nine years the senior of the pair at 34, was coming off the back off a loss for the WBC International title in January and was decked in the opener courtesy of a lovely left hook. A stoppage looked on the cards for the rest of the first as the reigning Trinidad and Tobago Champion wasn’t apt at holding, but eventually the steam in Perez’s attacks dwindled and a very long three minutes for Kertson finally ended.

Perez did whatever he pleased over the remaining two sessions. He dropped his hands, worked the head and the body effortlessly and then would club the hapless Manswell with southpaw rights and lefts around the corner. Manswell’s slate now reads 20-2 (15).

The second quarter final featured late substitute Evgeny Orlov against reigning French champion Gregory Tony. Orlov, having weighed in at 308lbs, had a gargantuan 79lb (5st 9lbs) weight advantage. However, it was Tony who started the brighter of the pair, working the jab calmly as his sizeable foe came forward and proved his ambition. The German-based Russian brought whoops from the crowd as the breeze from his huge missed haymakers wafted past his opponent. Despite this, Orlov was jabbing well and was starting to use his size to wear down Tony and by the close of the session both looked drained.

The Frenchman had taken a bit of a mauling for my money and was looking very uncomfortable. I credited Orlov with the last round. He did most of the hitting and hurting in my opinion. But the classier work definitely came from the smaller 6’5’’ fighter from Saint-Raphael. At the close Terry O’Connor scored 29-28 for Tony, Howard Foster saw it the same in favour of Orlov and Phil Edwards was off the mark for me scoring it a shutout for Tony who progressed to the semis.

Former British, Commonwealth and Prizefighter champion Michael Sprott couldn’t quite overcome the height, reach and weight advantages of Tye Fields as he dipped out of the competition on a split decision. Sprott was outworked in the first. He took body shots and was simply too inactive as he couldn’t get himself in punching range often enough to win the round.

To the Reading fighter’s credit, he turned the fight into a shoot-out in the second which those in attendance loved. He used angles and tried to dart in and find Field’s chin somewhere up in the stratosphere. But while straining to reach for his lofty target he was massively exposed himself. The two big men dished out and took big shots with both appearing hurt on several occasions.

Sprott either needed a big third round or a hometown decision to win. Both Fields and the officials dictated differently as Tye boxed well on the back foot to take the session despite taking a couple of decent right hands. Richie Davis saw it for Sprott by 29-28, while Terry O’Connor and Phil Edward’s tallied for the American by the same margin.

The fourth leg of the tournament looked like it was going to be a blow out. Coming from Transilvania you would think that unbeaten Lucian Bot would be familiar with nightmare scenarios. And when German Konstantin Airch jumped on him and threw lightening combinations, it looked as though the Romanian’s nine year unbeaten streak was going to be bludgeoned to a brutal end. After somehow surviving the storm, Bot suffered a flash knockdown after taking a left hook that hindered him on the scorecards.

The second was a more even session and by the third Lucian was showing signs of being an educated fighter as he scored with straight three-punch combinations. Airch progressed to the next round with scores of 30-27 twice and a tighter 29-28.

Both semi-finals ended in a round. Mike Perez dispatched Gregory Tony in 54 seconds. Tony was floored heavily by a right-left combination and fell heavily on his shoulder. On getting up, he motioned heavily to the referee that he was injured. He was half-punched and half bundled down and stayed sat on the deck motioning that he was injured.

The second semi was more clinical. Tye Fields found a world class left hook to the ribs to send poor Konstantin Airch into a world of agony. The affair was called off after 1:14 seconds with the former Danny Williams victim rolling around in desperate pain on the canvas.