Jamie Humble impressed the crowd with a flawless performance whilst Jone Volau TK narrowly missed out on the win after a hard fought contest at Newcastle Racecourse on Saturday night.
Fighting alongside the highly-touted Manchurians Zelfa Barrett and Lyndon Arthur, both Fighting Chance boxers finished 2016 with crowd-pleasing bouts worthy of such company.
Boxing for only the second time this year due to injury, Jamie Humble emphatically dismissed any talk of ‘ring-rust’ with a four-round demolition of the much more experienced Simas Volosinas.
Humble put on a near punch perfect show in front of the Boxnation cameras, and began the fight in ferocious fashion with a number of long body shots in the opening round. Feinting the jab and connecting with the backhand, the successful amateur utilised fantastic footwork and head movement to keep out of range from his opponents wild, wayward attacks.
Humbles footwork wasn’t reserved solely for defence however, and the Tynesider switched stance throughout the fight to upset his opponents rhythm and open up angles for short, sharp uppercuts. The lead screw shot found a home on his opponents chin throughout the bout, and it was clear Humbles training had focused on combinations as oppose to looking just for the ‘fight-finishing’ shot.
Volosinas came out with intent in the 3rd, marching forward and attempting to force the fight into more of a messy brawl. Humble nullified this tactic easily with his superior head movement, and through his sheer intensity and work rate forced his opponent into throwing sporadic hooks and very little else for the majority of the bout.
Coming out with a unanimous 40/36 victory, Jamie Humble looked bizarrely comfortable fighting a bigger, more experienced man in only his 2nd professional fight, and showed no issues at all with cardio despite his injury driven lay-off. With a lot of interest shown in Humble after the Saturday night his stocks have certainly risen, and 2017 looks to be a massive year for the Fighting Chance prospect.
FC stablemate Jone Volau TK also fought on Pat Barrett’s ‘Christmas Box’ show, missing out narrowly on a points decision against Josh Sandland in a fight that at points looked unlikely to go the distance.
TK started in promising fashion; taking the centre of the ring immediately and landing a solid right hand in the opening stanza. The first round was a patient, and at times a tense three minutes, and one almost impossible to score.
Both boxers were looking to trade big shots on the inside, which led to a more clumsy exchange. The two fighters were warned for holding, with TK attempting to establish his jab in the middle rounds.
The heavyweight pair focused much of their attacks on big right hands, TK looking for looping overhands whilst Sandland opted for a more straight variant. The 4th round saw both fighters hurt one another, and TK landed a backhand that noticeably wobbled his opponent. Although backing up and looking unstable on his feet, the Fijian born TK failed to capitalise on this opportunity, albeit partly down to clinching on his opponents part.
With fatigue apparent in the final round, the pair exchanged a final barrage of heavy shots before touching gloves on the final bell. Although a massively crowd-pleasing fight, both boxers struggled to really establish their gameplan, with TK relying on long overhands rather than working his way in with straights like he has in his previous bouts.
Although a lot of people ringside scored the bout as a draw, you can’t take anything away from the travelling Josh Sandland on his professional debut.
Granted, not the end to 2016 Jone Volau TK wanted, or in some ways deserved, dealing with adversity is not something that fears the two-time military boxing champion. Embracing the motto that you ‘never lose, only learn’, Volau will no doubt bounce back in the new year and look to get back on track towards area titles and domestic success.
‘Chrsitmas Box’ saw a number of talents from the North West travel to Tyneside, with Liverpool's Marcel Braithwaite being tested by the very game Craig Derbyshire. Braithwaite battled against a slow start to pick his opponent apart in the remaining rounds, and continued his unbeaten start to the professional ranks.
The highly touted Lyndon Arthur and Zelfa Barrett both stopped their opponents. Arthur targeted long uppercuts to put his opponent down twice, and unable to beat the count the fight finished in the 2nd. Barrett went 14-0 with a tough fight against Rafael Castillo, eventually forcing his opponent to retire at the end of the 4th.
AUTHOR: Declan Bell
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