BRAD Pauls is the new British middleweight champion after stopping Nathan Heaney in the 12th and final round of a thrilling domestic battle.
Headlining in Resorts World Arena, Birmingham, the fight picked up where they left off in March when Heaney retained his title by a split draw. Heaney’s jab was working well early on here as Pauls was being controlled at range.
Brad needed a power shift and he found it in round four as a lazy jab from Heaney was met with a thudding right hand on the chin. Heaney smiled but received a count from referee Kevin Parker as he found his feet.
Heaney was pitching hard in the seventh but looked exhausted at the tail end of the eighth. He regrouped and had a good couple of rounds towards the close of the contest.
Pauls responded with a very productive 11th and continued that momentum into the final round, piling on the pressure. Heaney sagged and swayed along the ropes, Pauls sensed his moment had arrived and the Newquay man summoned up every last ounce of energy, forcing Michael Alexander to step in at 54 seconds of the 12th round.
The unused judges were Victor Loughlin, Kieran McCann and Bob Williams.
There were tears from the new champion who improved to 19-1-1 (11 KOs) and paid tribute to trainer Terry Steward for sticking with him.
“It’s a busy division and I’ll happily fight anyone,” said Pauls. “This is my moment, dreams come true, it doesn’t matter where you start. It feels surreal. I can’t wait to take this belt back to Cornwall and show them anything can happen. Cornwall forever!”
Suffering his first defeat, falling to 18-1-1 (6 KOs), Heaney left the ring with his team as his Stoke faithful rightly chanted in favour of a tough competitor.
In the supporting cast, Andrew Cain ruthlessly dispatched Ashley Lane to win the British and Commonwealth bantamweight titles. Lane took the fight to Cain which was a reckless strategy and failed to pay off.
Cain’s shot selection, especially the move downstairs at the end, made all the difference. The loss to Ionut Baluta has not affected him at all. The Liverpudlian looked calm, composed and picked all the rights shots at the right times.
Ekow Essuman knocked Owen Cooper out in round 10 of a thriller. Essuman had Cooper down and in huge trouble before the tide turned at the close of the ninth in dramatic fashion. Cooper put Essuman down with a giant right hand and seemed odds-on to finish the job in the final round.
Nottingham’s Essuman had other ideas and landed a left hook that started the blitz to end the fight. It was fantastic back-and-forth action.
“Essuman was on the brink of defeat at the end of the ninth but he would just not be denied,” wrote Declan Taylor on the Boxing News live results blog.
Opening the TNT television portion, Zach Parker knocked out a returning Jack Arnfield in round four. Arnfield was shipping heavy blows and looked understandably rusty.
A strange drawn card aside, Chantelle Cameron was a worthy winner over Elhem Mekhaled by majority decision. Boxing under her new promoter, Frank Warren, for the first time, Chantelle picked up the vacant WBC Interim title at 140 pounds.
Ezra Taylor got a good 10-round workout, defeating tricky Carlos Alberto Lamela by wide decision.
Solomon Dacres knocked out Michael Webster in round seven of their rematch. Neither man particularly impressed before the finish.
On the YouTube portion, Shabaz Masoud and Bradley Thompson won their respective contests on points.