Tait defuses 'The Bomb' to claim Southern Area strap

Sheerness’ Gavin 'The Guvnor' Tait was crowned the Southern Area welterweight champion last night at the Coronet Theatre in Elephant and Castle as he gritted out a determined 96-94 decision over Croydon Bomber Chas Symonds.

After a messy first two sessions, Tait was looking like he was going to make an easy night of the former champion. Symonds was decked heavily towards the end of the third and appeared to have the swagger of a competitor who knew he was in charge.

But Chas in made of stern stuff. His war with Brett James in 2004 is considered a domestic classic and “The Bomb” also has a decision win over Thursday night’s Prizefighter winner Robert Lloyd-Taylor on his ledger. And true to character, Symonds rallied hard over the fourth and fifth to take the rounds with a thumping selection of hard right hands and left uppercuts.

The Coronet Theatre reminds me of Steve Holdsworth’s small hall footage of the late eighties and early nineties. The venue is tiny and most of the audience were standing tightly above the level of the ring. The effect was an intense cauldron of atmosphere which would crescendo ferociously as the action heated up.

The contest was becoming brutal by the sixth session. The fighters were steaming into each other and exchanging punches. Chas scored with a lovely counter left and a pair of hooks. Shortly afterwards Tait was dealing with cuts to both eyes. The contest was halted while the doctor inspected the damage and after an apparent age of lengthy conversation with third man Bob Williams the affair was allowed to continue.

I awarded Chas the seventh as he again connected with right hands over the top of the Kent fighter’s guard to continue his comeback. But Tait landed with a lovely jab and straight right which prompted Chas to curse his carelessness before re-engaging.

Tait’s work was the more effective over the last two sessions. A massive right hand caught the eye in the ninth and Gavin was attempting to come up the middle in the last with uppercuts. Symonds his now lost four out of his last five and Tait moves to 11-10 (3).

Preston’s Paul “Maniac” Morris was the only fighter on the right-hand side of the bill to get the win last night as a second round flash knockdown helped him overcome Nathan Skeen in a cruiserweight four threes.

Nathan, who is Australian-born but now a personal trainer from Clapham, took the opener with the more assertive work including one punch that appeared to have Morris momentarily shaken. Morris looked so slow in the third but compounded his tally on the cards with a solid last session which earned him a razor-thin 39-38 point verdict.

Ben Day registered a successful debut as he out-pointed Crawley trier “Rockin’” Robin Deakin over four three minute rounds at lightweight. The pair had exchanged an un-gentlemanly verbal warm up prior to the first bell and then proceeded to hammer into each other liberally letting their hands go without a jab in sight.

Ben, a coach at the Ringtone gym in Euston and personal trainer to Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell, probably got the better of the exchanges but the output from both competitors was outstanding in quality. Even as late as the third round, Deakin was so wound up that he brought angry boos from those in attendance by hitting Ben very hard on the break. At the close of four largely uncontrolled sessions of the noble art Day took a 39-37 point verdict.

Dillian “The Villian” Whyte from Peckham scored his second paid victory as he out-pointed tough Latvian Remigijus Ziausys over the four round distance at heavy. The almost two stone weight advantage Dillian possessed allowed him to bully his man relatively easily.

Whyte launched combinations at the smaller man who had seen it all before in his 60 prior fights and simply took the shots on the gloves and arms. Remigijus has shared the ring with Alexander Frankl, Alexander Kotlobay, Darren Corbett, Robert Helenius, Ismail Abdul and Giacobbe Fragomeni and dealing with a Peckham novice trying to be flash was probably easy money for him.

Whenever Whyte had successes, notably with some decent uppercuts, the visitor would always fire back to ward off a potential follow up and at the close Bob Williams’ 39-37 slate agreed with my own.

Carshalton’s Lee Owen made a straight forward debut at light-middle against Liam Griffiths over four uneventful rounds. The 24-year-old from Bognor seemed only to have survival as an ambition and can’t have started the fight with any confidence having been shut out in his two prior starts.

Lee had Griffiths on the back foot for almost the entire contest and made his man stumble on several occasions. Liam postured, threw feints tried to make it to the finish. He did and consequently heard the obvious news that he’d lost every session.

The show opened with two debutants each scoring shutout victories. Marcin Marczak remained super calm and picked his punches well to take every sessions against Bheki “The Beck’s Tiger Moyo. The London-based South African did manage to land a couple of decent right hands against Marczak, but Marcin’s composure and bodywork ensured a largely smooth introduction to his paid career.

Secondly, Sutton middleweight “Fearless” Warren Fenn had an entertaining start as a BBBofC licence holder as he and fellow novice Mickey O’Sullivan went at each other like a pair of windmills in a four threes. Referee Bob Williams had his work cut out as Fenn launched his opponent unceremoniously to the floor in the first round.

Warren mostly got the better of the heated exchanges at the start of the second session before the pair took a breather. Mickey was fairly one-dimensional over the second half of the fight and Fenn’s quality work with the jab was enough to earn the shutout.

Finally, fast-footed Daryl Still’s unbeaten run continues as he won every round against Luton’s Gavin Putney. Still started the bout looking dangerous to the body, but as the bout progressed Putney did have his moments with some sneaky right hands. In the last, Putney was warned for turning his back and was generally on his bike in defensive mode.

Pictures by Bernard Miller for BoxRec News