York Hall: Toks ticks over and Gill gains experience

38-year-old Toks Owoh, now billed out of Chalk Farm, scored a routine win in his second outing of his recent comeback as he outpointed Lithuanian journeyman Remigijus Zisusys on Steve Goodwin’s latest offering from Bethnal Green’s York Hall on Saturday night.

Of course the Londoner, who once shared the ring with world-class operators Omar Sheika and Glen Johnson, wasn’t going to be massively up for a four rounder against a journeyman. But it would have been nice to see a better indication of what Toks might still be able to contribute to the current cruiserweight division. As it stands, Owoh in his latest incarnation looks far from threatening. Zisusys, who was fighting on UK soil for the first time having previously made it to Ireland twice, had only been stopped by Alexander Frankel in 48 starts (13 wins 32 loses and 3 draws). Owoh never looked likely to repeat the trick.

The first was so sleepy, with the pair lacking impetus or real conviction. Owoh, fighting out of a cross-armed defence a la Archie Moore, was content to cover up and let the visitor fire shots at him that were comfortably taken on the guard. Over the last two sessions, Toks showed some decent hand speed as both scored with at least a smattering of shots to keep the York Hall fans awake. Owoh was ticked off for letting his shots slip low and finished the contest with what appeared to be a bloody nose. Owoh moves to 19-5 (11). All highly forgettable stuff.

Jason Nesbitt, fighting on his fourth successive weekend, may have lost to unbeaten Phil Gill, but for round-after-round had no trouble in not getting hit by the overwhelming majority of the punches thrown by the Waltham-Abbey prospect. Nesbitt got his chin down and his elbows in for the first as the man introduced as “The Phil Gill Experience” punched non-stop and ineffectually.

Nesbitt launched some of his speculative haymakers when the time arose. Still coming forward, Gill did manage to get a couple of useful right uppercuts through in the second. Nesbitt started to make Phil miss at times and then impressed by catching the nine-fight unbeaten man (1 draw) with two of those winging rights.

Gill’s body-hunting caught the eye in the third as he looked to be connecting far more cleanly than previously. And Nesbitt, as he did against Evangelou two weeks ago, appeared to be losing his rag about something at the close of the round. Gill finished the fight as he’d started it by being the aggressor and punching rapidly. Jason scored with a good left uppercut but slipped to a 39-37 defeat on Jeff Hinds’ card. Nesbitt falls to 9-124-2 (6) and fights Amir Unsworth next week.

In a battle of fighters managed by Mickey Helliet (who was drafted in as a last minute MC for the show), Wayne Alwan-Arab outpointed Danny Donchev at light-middle to move his unbeaten record to 12-0 (1). For those who haven’t come across the Zimbabwe-born Hackney resident, he keeps his left hand dangerously low but exploits this by launching fast punches from his open guard.

Wayne boxed well in the first and jabbed from range. Donchev was always at least a punch behind. In the second, Alwan-Arab boxed with his left attached to his waist in the second, but used good footwork and fast hands to stay out of trouble and score with a hard left uppercut. Danny began to have more success in the third. He was gritting his teeth against his rangy opponent, but started to find his way underneath shots a la Joe Frazier and managing to thwack some decent leather in. Donchev, while having appeared to have hurt Alwan-Arab in the last, was floored while on the way in. He appeared more embarrassed than hurt and managed to score with a good counter right and hard left hook before the 40-35 point decision went against him.

Woolwich’s Eder Kurti logged a four-round points win on the score card of London black-cab driver Richie Davies as he overcame Jamie Norkett by a 40-37 tally at light-heavy. After a fairly slow opener in which Kurti was mainly looking to land big shots on the taller Norkett, Eder showed that he has some solid moves in the second.

Norkett, whose technique isn’t great, was trying to counter attack with nothing landing of note. Over the final two sessions, Norkett suffered from a badly cut nose that transformed his face into a crimson work of modern art. To his credit, he stayed in there to the final bell. Eder has now put together a decent run of eight fights unbeaten in an overall tally of 11-4 (2). Norkett decends to 3-20 (1).

Ensley Bingham-trained Dan Woodgate from Minster scored a four round 40-37 win over Scunthorpe’s Jodie Meikle in a four round fought slightly over the light-heavyweight limit. Woodgate delivered some fast-paced action to those in attendance in the first session. He connected with two successive right-left combinations forcing a “I-know-I-was-caught” smile out of Meikle. Dan continued to box impressively in the next. He worked the body to open his man up and then switched well to the head. Jodie was cut on the left eye by the end of the session.

Jodie did manage to land with a good left throughout the guard in the third, but Woodgate replied by hammering home a right uppercut and left hook. Meikle looked disorganised in the last and very open on his left side as Woodgate managed to register with his right hand. Woodgate improves to 2-1 and is due to fight in Gillingham in two weeks time.

Biggleswade’s Jamie Bonness pipped Guilford’s Louis Byrne by 39-38 in a middleweight four-threes. In a dreadfully dreary opener, Jamie didn’t really throw much and Byrne hardly set the world alight as the pair had a long look at each other while the spectators mostly looked at their programs. Byrne was told to “have a go” as he came out for the second as the man in the blue corner wasn’t looking superhuman by any means. But again the contest failed to come alive as Bonness nicked the round for me with some jabs and right hands.

I noted in the third that the Bonness was really lacking in aggression for a house fighter, but in the last he started to punch in clusters more. Byrne also started to play his part too as he took centre ring and score with some right hands.

Finally, the only surprise of the evening occurred in the top-of-the-bill four twos between Met Sekiraqa and Floyd Moore which took place at just over the light-welter limit. Sekiraqa, massively supported by a strong and vocal Albanian contingent for his debut, jabbed and attempted to throw right-left combinations in the opener. It was Moore though who seemed to be making the biggest impact on the fight. He connected with lefts to both body and head and appeared to be the more solid of the pair.

The Red and black Eagled fans were stunned into silence in the second as Met was floored heavily on a right hand. He bravely beat the count, but after another hard right sent him sprawling again he was deemed to be in no position to continue after courageously rising again. The time was 1:39. As Floyd celebrated his first pro win wildly, a member of the security team had a well-timed word with the victor who then scaled his happiness down and Met’s army of supporters then thankfully filtered away without incident.