REVIEW:TEAM GB REIGN SUPREME IN LONDON
Charlie Edwards put on a show on Saturday night to succesfully defend his WBC flyweight title with a shutout unanimous decision victory over Angel Moreno at the Copper Box Arena.
Edwards who dominated the fight start to finish was making the first defense of his title he won by defeating Cristopher Rosales back in December.
Boxing beautifully behind the jab Edwards frustrated his Spanish opponent and never left him with a statutory target at any time through-out. Moreno however kept the contest interesting, never giving up on the fight and continued to thunder forward in complete disregard for the champions power.
An interesting factor in the fight came in round four when Moreno began to showboat as almost to try and throw Edwards off plan and bait him into a stand off. At first Edwards looked to have fell into the trap as he began to showboat back and showed signs of starting to fall into Morenos fight however at the end of the round the champion was on the end of a furious reaction from trainer Grant Smith which put the his mindset back on plan.
In the end Edwards just had that little bit more in every department. Each time Moreno would land something impressive Edwards would answer with something doubly impressive which was evidenced in round eight when the champion scored a flash knockdown over Moreno.
Moreno however kept coming all night and made the champion work hard for his victory. An impressive performance from Edwards and he now looks forward to some big fights in the summer.
Also on the bill was a stoppage victory for Lawrence Okolie as he stopped Wadi Comacho in four scrappy one sided rounds to add the Commonwealth Title to his already held British Cruiserweight title. Comacho like most could never figure out the Okolie puzzle and resorted to holding to try and upset 'The Sauce' but once Okolie measured the distance correctly it was a matter of time and two hard right hands saw referee Mark Lyson jump in with a sensible stoppage as the brave Comacho rose to his feet. Okolie is now rumoured to appear on the undercard of Anthony Joshua and Jarrell Miller in June.
For me the most impressive performance of the night came from Joshua Buatsi. Buatsi picked up the vacant British Light-Heavyweight title after stopping the very brave Liam Conroy in three rounds. A huge mention of steely determination and respect has to go to Conroy as i think he surprised most of us coming into the fight clearly unfazed by Buatsi's reputation and was there to upset the odds.
However Buatsi looked not only one of the countrys biggest prospects but now an established world prospect. The performance was chilling as he looked to take Conroy out from the word go and in round three landed a massive counter right hand which seemed to visably daze Conroy who bravely got back to his feet. However Buatsi smelled blood and in true predator fashion again rocked and dropped Conroy with a dazzling flurry of power punching which ended with a huge right hook flooring Conroy and again referee Phil Edwards wisely waved the contest off.
Both fighters performances merited seperate aspects of respect. For me I would be really interested to see what Conroy could do if paired with a Hosea Burton or Craig Richards type of opponent and for Buatsi i think he may start to find it tough to be matched as that performance would not have earned him many new willing challenges.
In other bouts of the evening Lewis Ritson battled harder than most would have thought required to outpoint tough Argentine, German Argentino Benitez over ten rounds. Jason Quigley impressed scoring a second round stoppage win over Mathias Eklund. There was a debut win for Shannon Courtenay who looks like she could be fun to watch as she builds her profile.
An Upset for Tom Ansell as he lost his undefeated record to tough journeyman Chris Adaway and finally routine points wins for Welsh prospect Sean McGoldrick and Tonbridge Middleweight Lewis Syrett.
For me the best card of the year so far, the fights and hype was exciting, it had everything from thunderous stoppages to dominent boxing skills but overall the night belonged to WBC World Champion, Charlie Edwards.
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