AS expected, highly touted young heavyweight Daniel Dubois blasted through Ricardo Snijders with minimal fuss at the BT Sport Studio, needing just three minutes and 20 seconds to dispatch the outgunned Dutchman.
Heerlen’s Snijders – a late replacement for the far more accomplished Erik Pfeifer – was out of his depth from the get-go. Having primarily competed at cruiserweight beforehand, he found Dubois’ punishing power simply too much to handle.
Thudding jabs caused Snijders to backpedal early on,
before a booming left hook sent him to the canvas. A pair of short lefts
downstairs brought about another knockdown, and Snijders was then decked for a
third time following a hefty right up top.
There was no let-up from Dubois in the second round. The
Greenwich giant, who currently holds the British and Commonwealth crowns,
pounded Snijders’ midriff with a trio of hooks, dropping him to the floor. By
this point, referee Marcus McDonnell had seen enough. The bout had been
optimistically set for 12.
Next up for Dubois is a much-anticipated battle with fellow unbeaten Londoner Joe Joyce. This rearranged contest is scheduled to take place on October 24 at the O2 Arena.
Double Olympian and ex-Commonwealth flyweight boss Thomas Essomba went into his clash with Sunny Edwards in good form, but he was unable to record his third straight success, as Edwards maintained his lofty ranking with the IBF.
The switch-hitting super-flyweights took a look at
each other in the opening round, with the nimble Edwards just edging things.
The reigning British champion, who trains out of Sheffield, also did enough to
take the second session on account of his intelligent punch-picking. In the
third, Edwards utilised fast feints and smart movement to frustrate his
Wolverhampton-based foe.
Edwards, with his hair tied up in bizarre bunches, had
to fend off some assertive approaches from Essomba in the fourth, which left
the Croydon talent with a nick on his right eyebrow. Essomba kept his
aggression up in the next round, yet the elusive Edwards remained difficult to
pin down.
A whipping left to the midsection found the target
from Essomba in the sixth, as Edwards attempted to lure him onto counters.
Sunny held his ground more in round seven and stemmed Essomba’s forward march.
The duelling duo exchanged words as the action heated up in a close eighth.
In the ninth, Essomba was warned by third man Michael
Alexander for hitting after the break, which highlighted the Cameroonian’s
growing frustration with his slippery adversary. Bouncing lithely on his toes
in rounds 10 and 11, Edwards pecked and pocked at Essomba with point-scoring
jabs, as the African continued to press, but mostly to no avail. It was largely
the same story in the 12th, with Edwards ending the fight in command.
Terry O’Connor (117-111), Phil Edwards (117-112) and Mr
McDonnell (116-112) all rightly voted in favour of Edwards, who is moving
closer towards a potential crack at world honours.
Sam Maxwell, previously a high-class amateur, secured the best victory of his professional career so far by inflicting a third successive defeat upon former European titlist Joe Hughes.
Hughes shaded a competitive opener with his cultured lead
left, mixing jabs with uppercuts and hooks. The second was also keenly
contested, though the neat-boxing Maxwell finished the session on top. Both
worked well off their jabs in the third, a round in which Maxwell scored with a
sharp right cross.
The two super-lightweights traded left hooks to the
body in the fourth, yet it was Hughes who seemed to throw the more accurate
punches in the frame. Maxwell put his shots together nicely in rounds five and
six, but Hughes remained a threat with his biting left hooks, albeit often
thrown in singles.
Displaying increased confidence, a vibrant Maxwell
connected with crisp combinations in the seventh and eighth, as the tough and tenacious
Hughes stayed tight on his rival. The Malmesbury man targeted Maxwell’s
ever-reddening right eye with quality jabs in the penultimate stanza, ahead of
a fiercely fought final round, during which both boxers had their moments.
After an enjoyable 10-rounder, Liverpool’s Maxwell took
a deserved unanimous decision by marks of 98-92 (Mr Alexander) and 97-94 twice
(Mr McDonnell and Mr O’Connor). Hughes, however, certainly played his part. Mr
Edwards officiated.
Following a very successful amateur career at Junior
and Youth level, Willy Hutchinson has his sights set on a British
super-middleweight title tilt in the not-too-distant future. Stepping up to 10
rounds for the first time, the rising Scot made short work of Bolton’s Ben
Thomas, who challenged for the Central Area super-middle belt in his most
recent outing earlier this year.
Shedding some rust up at light-heavyweight, Hutchinson,
of Carstairs, forced Thomas to the mat with an educated two-fisted assault. Attacking
with precision and making clever use of angles, Hutchinson registered a second knockdown
soon after, compelling the man in the middle, Mr Alexander, to halt the contest
at 2-09.
Up-and-coming heavyweight David Adeleye made it
three wins out of three, all inside schedule. The strapping Ladbroke Grove fighter
used solid jabs and impressive variety to soften up Swindon journeyman Phil
Williams. In the third, Adeleye tore into his usually durable opponent with
a series of heavy strikes from both hands, leading referee Alexander to
terminate proceedings at 2-10. It had been slated for four.
Rounding off this Queensberry Promotions card over six
was promising Maidstone lightweight Sam Noakes, who managed to stop Seaham’s
gritty Jordan Ellison, which is no mean feat. A stiff right penetrated
Ellison’s guard and floored him in the fourth, before a jolting right uppercut
did the same in the subsequent round. This resulted in Mr Alexander calling the
bout off at 1-28.