Boxing from "The Elephant and Castle" - London England

By Ginge Ecob

29.09.01 - Golden Fists Promotions put on a boxing promotion in The Elephant and Castle. in London.

Unfortunately the audio did not come through for the first few fights so I missed some fighter's records. The audio was intermittent for the whole evening.

The first fight was an eight round affair at light welterweight between Stephan Carr 14-1-0 12 ko's. He weighed in at 10 stone 1 pound. and Victor Barinov 30-16-3 weighing 10 stone. A stone is 14 pounds. This was a hard fought bout. Carr had Barinov down in the second round and also in the fourth. In the seventh Barinov was down twice. The referee stopped the fight at 2 minutes 36 seconds of the seventh round. Carr is the All Africa Light Welterweight Champion. If he wants to go on to World Title fights he will probably have to fight an Englishman called Ricky Hatton. I believe that Hatton will slaughter him.

The second fight was a heavyweight affair between Eamonn Glennon, 15 stone 12 lbs. and thirty one years old and Dominic Negus, 16 stone and also 31 years old, His record 11-4-1. Unfortunately I didn't get the Glennon's record. Negus dominated this fight and won every round, but Glennon was a really tough opponent. When Negus tired in the fourth Glennon came back very well but he did not have enough to take the round as Negus woke up near the end and took over. For the first half of the fifth round Glennon was the aggressor but again did not have enough. The sixth round was dominated by Negus. Negus is the ex Southern Area Cruiserweight Champion and has recently built up to heavy.

The next fight was a 6 round affair in the welterweight division. The two boxers were in excellent condition. They both weighed 10 stone 8 lbs. Brett James, is from London and Willie Smith is from Worcester. Again I did not get the fight records. This was a good fight between two young and brave men. James is a really skillful boxer and Smith is a Brawler. James was adjudged the winner after 6 exciting rounds.


Next came a 12 round fight for the British and Commonwealth Super Middleweight
Championship. The Challenger, Neil Linford 12-3-0 5 ko's weighed in at 11 stone 13 1/2 lbs. The Champion, David Starie 26-2-0 19 ko's weighed in at 12 stone. In the first round the two men felt each other out. For the next two rounds Starie held the upper hand and outboxed Linford. In the fourth round Starie threw a looping right and blood flowed from the left eye of Linford. He fought on bravely but the fight was stopped 2 minutes 35 seconds into the sixth round.

The next fight was the feature bout of the evening. It was scheduled for twelve rounds for the W.B.U. Light Flyweight Championship of the World between the Champion, Baby Jake Matlala of South Africa, 51-13-2 26 ko's, 7 stone 8 lb. and the Challenger, Mickey Cantwell from Great Britain, 14-6-1 6 ko's, 7 stone 10 lb.

Jake Matlala is a living legend. He made his professional debut in February 1980 and
has held four world championship titles. He is forty next birthday. He fought Cantwell
in about 1997 and beat him on a split points decision.

Round one. Cantwell started very well and had Matlala in some trouble. Matlala found
his range and took the round.

Round two. It was obvious that Matlala had no intention of letting this fight go the distance. He came out and had Cantwell in trouble on the ropes for most of the round.

Round three. I gave the third round to Cantwell. He used his reach and height advantage to great affect and fought from the outside.

Round four. Cantwell started this round as he finished the last and was ahead until he started trying to fight on the inside. Matlala came back strongly and almost had Cantwell out in the last few seconds.

Round five. Matlala fought strongly and suddenly Cantwell caught him with a left hook. This seemed to wake Matlala up and he started punching Cantwell from all angles. Cantwell's corner threw in the towel and the fight was stopped 1 minute 59 seconds into the fifth round.

Had Cantwell stayed on the outside he could have won this fight. He is taller and has a longer reach than Matlala. His made the mistake of coming in at a crouch and trying to outbox Matlala on the inside. After the fight he said that he was retiring from boxing. Matlala said that he would retire in February next year. He says that every year. A really good fight.

The next fight was In the Middleweight Division over six rounds between Steve Bendal and Alan Gilbert. I reported on one of Bendal's fights from South Africa On the 22nd August of this year. In that fight he fought Bert Bado of the Philippines. Steve is unbeaten in 12 fights and has 6 ko's to his credit. He weighed in at 11 stone 8 lb. Alan Gilbert 10-2-1 weighed 11 stone 6 lb.

Bendal dominated this fight from the start and won every round. Gilbert's corner called the fight off after the third round because of cuts. I predicted in August that Bendal would go a long way. I have not changed my mind. Watch out for him in the future.

The last fight was a 12 round W.B.U. Light Heavyweight title fight. It was for the vacant title. The fighters were Butch Lesley from Britain and Andre Kiarsten from Estonia. The opponent was supposed to be Roman Babsey from Russia but for some reason he could not make it and Kiarsten took the fight at three days notice.
Lesley weighed 12 stone 6 lb and Kiarsten 12 stone 4 lb. Lesley has a height and reach advantage.

In the first round Kiarsten showed that he was here to win, he got in close and pounded away with lefts and rights. A cut opened under Lesley's right eye. Kiarsten's round. Round two was similar the first but Lesley hit a couple of low blows and it was unclear whether the ref deducted a point or not. Kiarsten's round. Round three saw Lesley come back, using his jab and boxing behind it, and easily took the round. His corner battled for the entire fight to close the cut under his eye. This was a very exciting fight which swung one way then the other and was very hard to score. All the rounds were close and when Lesley used his jab he won the round. Unfortunately he tried to out punch Kiarsten on the inside in most of the rounds and thus he lost the fight.

I made it 113-112 to Kiarsten. The judges saw it 114-112 and 114-112 to Kiarsten and 116-110 to Lesley. That third judge must have been watching another fight. Kiarsten is another boxer who I believe has a great future in the sport. He is tough and very gutsy. He is from Estonia and I am sure that you have heard of him.

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David Starie wants to be world champion

Wim-Theo van Yperen

30.09 - As an amateur he was ABA lightmiddleweight champion in 1993 and ABA Middleweight champion in 1994. Now as a professional boxer he is British and Commonwealth Supermiddleweight champion but he wants more: he wants to be a world champion. Before we take a look at the guys who are world super middleweight champions now, we take a look at David's fight at Saturday September 29, in the Elephant and Castle Leisure centre in Great Britain.

David Starie defended his Commonwealth and British titles against Neil Linford. Although Neil was behind on points he was pretty brave and durable. It was not that easy to defeat him. But David Starie was the boxer with the more effective combinations. After such a combination in the sixth round the referee stopped the fight. Neil Linford was in no condition to continue.

The current world champions in supermiddleweight devision:

WBO champ Joe Calzaghe (Britain). As an amateur he was ABA Welterweight Champion in 1991, ABA light Middleweight Champion in 1992 and ABA Middleweight Champion in 1993. He is well-known because of his fast hands and excellent chin. He defeated Chris Eubank to win the WBO Supermiddleweight title in 1997. For instance he defended his title against Robin Reid and. David Starie in the beginning of 2000. His last defence was in April 2001 against Mario Veit. Which was a very short fight, it ended in a TKO in the first round. He's still undefeated in his professional career.

WBF champ Robin Reid (Britain) was very succesfull as an amateur. With an Olympic bronze medal in 1992 (Barcelona) as the highest top. As a professional he was WBC supermiddleweight champion in '96 and '97 but lost that title in December '97 against Sugar Boy Malinga. In 1999 he lost a fight against Joe Calzaghe for the WBO title. In June 2000 he challenged Sylvio Branco for the WBU world title but also lost that fight. But in December 2000 he won the WBF world title by defeating Mike Gormly with a TKO in the first round. He will defend that world title for the third time at October 20 next, in Glasgow. This world champion has now 29 wins, 3 losses and 1 drawn.

IBF champ Sven Ottke from Germany is still undefeated in his professional career. After a very long amateur career (including Olympic boxing in Atlanta) he made his professional debut in March 1997. He became IBF-world supermiddleweight champion in his 13th professional fight, against Charles Brewer in 1998. He defended that IBF-world title against fighters like Gabriel Hernandez, Lloyd Bryan, Tocker Pudwill, Charles Brewer (in a rematch), James Crawford, and of course James Butler in September 2001. Current Commonwealth and British champion David Starie wants to challenge Sven Ottke early 2002 for the IBF world title.