Amir Khan DESTROYS Phil Lo Greco!
By Tyler “The Miracle Man” White
This past weekend, saw Amir Khan return to fight in the UK, although it was over like a flash in the pan when he knocked out Phil Lo Greco within 40 seconds of the first round! There’s not an awful lot that we can take away from this ‘contest’ but the one thing we can be certain of is that Khan still retains his speed, power and boxing ability, which has already seen him capture World titles in the past.
Aside from Khan’s quick victory, there were also some positive results for the fighters on the undercard of which I’ll summarise…
Former European, British and Commonwealth Welterweight Champion – Sam Eggington – looked a lot more comfortable in his first fight since moving up to Super-Welterweight, with a 2nd round stoppage over a tough; Slovakian national Champion. There wasn’t anything particularly exciting about this fight, but it was good for Eggington to test the waters in this new weight class.
Liverpool’s own Anthony Fowler put in a short, but well measured performance against a tough opponent in Ryan Toms, dropping his man with a beautifully timed body shot which drained all the air and energy from him as he banged his gloves on the canvas in pain and frustration, unable to make the count.
Next up was ‘Miss GB’ Natasha Jonas, who like Fowler is a Liverpudlian through and through and also represented team GB at the Olympic Games in 2012. Jonas put in a patient and tactical performance against a very awkward and unorthodox opponent – Taoussy L’Hadji of France – often landing her southpaw cross and snapping back the head of the tough French fighter.
As the fight progressed, L’Hadji began to make things difficult for Jonas with her work rate and far longer range, up until the 7th round, when the Liverpudlian caught her opponent flush on the chin with an excellently timed right hook which spelt the end for the French fighter and the referee waved the contest off.
A strong performance and a good learning fight for Jonas, who will have to make a few adjustments and keep winning fights like these if she wants a shot at revenge against Katie Taylor who defeated her at the 2012 Olympic games.
Connor Benn (son of Nigel Benn) was in the ring shortly after, making his first appearance since a very shaky performance at the York Hall towards the end of last year, which saw him dropped and hurt several times.
Benn, focused and determined to prove himself, went toe-to-toe with a brave opponent in Chris Truman for 4 rounds. The whole contest was pretty much fought within the pocket, with Benn bobbing side to side and attacking Truman with hooks to head and body, slowly breaking him down. After a temporary gap in the action due to Truman’s gum shield coming out, Connor Benn caught his man with a short left uppercut through the centre of his guard and got the result he’d been looking for with a KO victory in the 4th.
Connor Benn is still learning on the job, but could really benefit from getting back to basics and working behind his jab – when he uses it, it looks strong and sharp and in the long run it’ll take him a lot further in his career!
The most entertaining fight of the night, was for the Commonwealth lightweight title, which saw two ‘nice guys’ of the sport go head-to-head; those two ‘nice guys’ being Sean ‘Masher’ Dodd and Tommy “Boom Boom” Coyle.
Friendly and respectful in the build up, with not a single piece of trash talk from both men, the fight was still highly anticipated and had a lot of buzz surrounding it and rightly so, as the contest was full of exciting moments and knockdowns!
[si-contact-form form=’2′]