Great Britain’s ‘Lionhearts’ inflicted USA Knockouts their second defeat in the World Series of Boxing last Thursday night in front of a packed York Hall crowd. Conail Gallagher reports.
The Lionhearts produced a professional display, as they stretched their group B lead to five points with a 4-1 win.
The first of the five fights was in the Flyweight division, as Lionhearts’ fighter, Muhammad Ali faced Gaurav Bidhuri. Ali went a little way to living up to his namesake, proving his popularity by bringing a huge following all the way from Bradford.
Heart
Ali started off the action with blinding hand speed, using his long arms to his advantage in and out of range. The first three rounds were dominated by the Bradford man, as Bidhuri could barely land a punch. Ali was three rounds up on all scorecards, with two of the judges giving him a 10-8 round in the third. Credit to his opponent, who showed heart to stay in the contest but Ali was too classy, peppering the desperate Bidhuri as he lunged in, cruising his way to a wide unanimous decision.
Next up at 69 kilos was Alnwick’s sensation, Cyrus Pattinson who took a short notice fight against Golden Gloves champion, Ardreal Holmes. Pattinson started off the action with good timing as he caught the much taller Holmes during a cagey opener.
Round two sprung to action as both fighters stepped up the pace. Pattinson took a grazing shot from his opponent’s glove in a heated exchange which opened a wide cut over the Northumbrian’s eye.
Thudding
As the blood kept leaking, the sense of urgency from Pattinson was apparent. Pattinson started making uncharacteristic mistakes, lunging in with clear intention to end the fight. Holmes started to time his shots, thudding home from long range. The pattern continued in the third, as the GB fighter was getting caught by clusters of hooks forcing the corner to throw in the towel early to protect their fighter.
“I’ve learnt a valuable lesson tonight to keep my composure when it’s not going my way,” said Pattinson. “My views are the same and that’s to get the Olympic gold.
“I have great coaches and they had to protect me with the qualifiers coming up. I’m always fit and ready so I will listen to them.”
Class
Next up was Welshman Joe Cordina, as he attempted to impress the GB coaches and solidify his spot at Lightweight for the Olympics. Cordina, who has oozed class in previous GB fights faced a tough Bruce Carrington. Cordina used his range throughout as he cruised to a dominant unanimous decision.
In the Light-heavyweight division, South London’s ABA champion Joshua Buatsi faced Souliman Abdourachidov in an absolute barnstormer. The home fighter’s support was buzzing and vocal as Buatsi aimed to put on a show. Early in the first Buatsi’s hammering right hand was too much to handle as he knocked Abdourachidov to the canvas.
The visiting fighter got up and took some heavy punishment towards the end of the round before he was saved by the bell. Rounds two and three were enthralling for the fans as Abdourachidov came back, showing an iron chin and landing some looping hooks of his own. However in the fourth, Buatsi’s pressure was too much to handle as the referee stopped the fight.
With the Lionhearts having clinched the win, The big Super Heavyweight battle between Joe Joyce and Brandon Lynch was a matter of personal pride. The risk at this weight is that one punch can end it at any point and that was the case here as it took only a matter of seconds for Joyce to land heavy shots forcing the referee to stop Lynch on his feet.
It resulted in an impressive 4-1 win for the Lionhearts, putting them top of Group B with no defeats this season. The team will next be out for another group fixture on the 17th of March as they face The Morocco Atlas Lions again at York Hall.