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AND THE NEW: Michael Dicks, pictured above right after beating Bovy Sor Udomsorn, is the new WMC European welterweight
champion. Photo by Michael Howarth.
DARLINGTON thai boxer Michael Dicks won the WMC European title and retained
his Intercontinental
belt when Frenchman Mehdi Zatout retired after the end
of the third round at the Dolphin Centre.
Dicks paid
for a slow start when he was knocked down in the first round after being caught by a fast two-punch combination from the loose
and fluent champion.
But the 24-year-old was up straightaway for the mandatory eight count and
got his game
together in the third round, dominating the clinch and thumping in knees and elbows from all angles.
One of Dicks’
elbows cut Zatout badly on top of the head in the dying seconds of the round.
The Parisian made it to the bell
and had the wound greased after a doctor check, but decided he did not want to continue during the interval and his corner
threw in the towel.
Dicks said: “I got caught but my eyes and head were clear and I was more frustrated than
anything.
“Sometimes when I got caught like that it wakes me up, but I still got the result.
“When
I caught him with the elbow he didn’t want to know.
“I wanted to finish him with a good, clean shot
but I got him in the end and it’s brilliant to win the title.”
Things looked ominous for the more flat-footed
Dicks in the early exchanges as he was picked off by Zatout’s fast and sharp hands as he walked in.
The defending
champion looked just as strong in the clinch in the first and
second rounds but was unable to sustain it, while Dicks
was just starting to get into his stride at the time of the stoppage.
Scotland's Wossobama gym duo Chris Shaw
and Ally Smith ensured that all three visiting French fighters went back across the Channel empty-handed as they
claimed respective A Class wins over Zatout’s teammates Lahoucine Idouche and Wendy Annonay.
Shaw provided
a highlight reel knockout of the night, leaving the skittering Idouche draped flat on his back over the second rope when he
clocked him with a left high kick after missing with a right hand in the third round of their 73kg match.
Southpaw
Annonay got his distance and timing spot-on in the first round of
his super middleweight clash against Smith and
snapped the Scotman’s head
back several times in the second with his left cross.
But he slowed down
from the third and Smith took over, landing at will with his hands
in the fourth as his grit and superior conditioning
saw him home on points.
In the night’s other A Class fight, little beat large in a pulsating West Yorkshire
light middleweight derby as James France (Bad Company, Leeds) climbed off the canvas to outpoint Bradford Thai Boxing’s
Alex Abusin.
France was forging ahead when he was decked by a right hand in the second
round, but got up to
win the third, fourth and fifth, doing the cleaner work.
Promoter Paul Hamilton’s Darlington Boxing and Martial
Arts Academy enjoyed
a perfect six winners from six on their great value 14-bout bill, with Dicks the highest profile
of them.
But while the main event provided a somewhat anticlimactic finish, Lanchana Green and Lauren Humphrey
combined for the fight of the night - and what many spectators described as one of the best female contests ever seen in a
UK thai boxing ring.
Humphrey (Phoenix Thai Boxing) hardly took a backward step throughout five furiously-paced rounds
and was as strong as an ox in the clinch, but Green’s crisp boxing gave her a deserved points win and the UKMF Northern
Area flyweight title.
Eddie Gill secured the B Class UKMF English title at 77kg after taking a close majority decision
over Martin Davis that could have gone the other way.
Gill picked Salford’s Davis apart in the first round
before the Manchester fighter upped his tempo from the second, meeting fire with fire in the trades.
In a
C Class light heavyweight match, Adao Ernesto knocked out Jamie McLeod
(Wossobama) with a right mid-kick in the first
round.
Class C super middleweight Aryvdis Jusinskas did not have to go the distance either as he won by second
round knockout against Salford’s Kevin Fletcher, who walked on to a right hand after replying to some hard low kicks
with a trio of knees.
At heavyweight, Darlington’s Marcin Niesyn kept the short and chunky Konrad
Koza
(Wossobama) on the end of his longer arms and legs and evaded the wild overhand rights coming back on the way to
a points win.
A tremendous all-Scottish brawl in Class C at 65kg saw Craig Dickson get up from a first round high
kick knockdown to outpoint Mike McGeachan after a real back and forth three rounder packed with big shots from both.
In the second of two female fights, tough little scrapper Wendy Bake (Phoenix) showed size is not all that matters
as she swarmed all over Fight Factory Newcastle’s bigger Linda Stevenson to win the UKMF Northern Area light flyweight
title on points.
A 68kg contest in the B Class saw Scotland’s Brian Stevenson shake off a second
round
knockdown to outpoint Teesside Muay Thai’s out-of-sorts Patrick Holmes after
getting the better of the clinches.
Carlisle Dragons’ Jamie Clark slayed Jimmy Burns of the Fight Factory, Newcastle on points in a Class C clinchfest
at 62kg.
Burns’ trainer Craig Jose made up for the volcanic ash cloud-enforced cancellation of his fight
against Saro Presti in Italy with a first round blowout of Steven Primrose in their B Class show opener at 72kg.
Newcastle’s Jose had to go the full route in a previous win over the Mancunian but quickly dropped him twice
with low kicks, the second time for the count.
New European champion Dicks fights in Preston next on July 4, and
in Beijing in August.
Hamilton will then try to get Andrei Kulebin to Darlington to see if Dicks can take the WMC
world title off the Belarussian, who knocked him out in a round last November, at the second attempt.
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