Mikey Sakyi ‘seizes’ the Southern Area title in dramatic fashion at MTK show
York Hall hosted MTK’s ‘Seize the City’ on Friday night to both a packed crowd as well as viewers who were able to stream the show online. The fights included a wealth of undefeated exciting prospects, a 12 round war for the IBF European Welterweight title and a bout for the Southern Area Super Lightweight title that completely stole the show.
Here are some of the main talking points from the show in a bit more detail:
22 year old Light Middleweight Kieran Conway displayed a dominant performance against Nicaraguan journeyman Geiboord Omier, winning every minute of every round in a fight that should have arguably not seen the final bell.
Harley Benn improved his professional record from 3-0 to 4-0 in a disciplined performance against Slovakian Rudolf Durica. Benn was the busier fighter throughout and grew in confidence as the fight went the full distance. Bizarrely, the score-card was 39-38 to Benn, surprising the crowd in attendance who many expected the fight to be a shut-out to the British prospect.
Danny Dignum stopped durable journeyman Konstantin Alexandrov after the Bulgarian had been taking too much punishment from the first bell. The stoppage came in the 2nd round concluding an impressive performance that moves the Essex based fighter up to 7-0.
In a fight that many would happily watch over and over again, Siar Ozgul and Mikey Sakyi slugged it out in an enthralling fight for the Southern Area Super Lightweight title.
The bout started quickly with plenty of shots being thrown on the inside as well as the outside with Ozgul winning the majority of the early rounds. However, as the fight developed, the rounds became really difficult to confidently give to one fighter as both boxers began to look fatigued as the fight entered the last couple of rounds.
Sakyi won the fight in amazing fashion, forcing the referee to stop the fight with one minute remaining of the final round with the likelihood being that he was quite far down on the scorecard. Scoring with a left hook, Sakyi clearly wobbled Ozgul and pounced immediately, bringing the fight to a close within 20 seconds.
As a genuine fight of the year contender, you’d expect fans as well as Ozgul himself to want the rematch in a fight that he was so close to being victorious in.
As the evening continued the main event was an enticing fight to watch as Larry Ekundayo & John Thain battled it out for the vacant IBF European Welterweight title.
Off to a cagey start, the fight took a while to get going woth Ekundayo winning the battle of the jabs before both fighters began to take risks and take a more aggressive approach. As the fight entered the closing stages, the style of the fight turned into more of a slugfest than a technical bout with both boxers testing each other’s chins.
As he did for most of the fight, Ekundayo came out on top in most of the later rounds forcing the judges to award him a unanimous decision of 117-111, 115-113 and 116-112, concluding the main event at York Hall on Friday night.
Credit to MTK Global for the image.