Queensberry Promotions returns to London’s York Hall tonight. Denzel Bentley’s crossroads battle with Danny Dignum headlines the triple title show but Oronzo Biradi, 8-0 (6 KOs) and Milans Volkovs, 10-3-2 (6 KOs) got the action underway with a well-matched eight-round cruiserweight contest.
Volkovs took the centre of the ring and landed a nice left hook and right uppercut during an entertaining opening round but the more-active Biradi established his jab and got a foothold in the fight in the second round and began to put a right hand behind it in the third. Volkovs held his shape and remained dangerous throughout with his long, straight shots and his more economical style kept him in the fight. Biradi cut loose in the sixth, momentarily hurting Volkovs with a right hand but the Latvian soaked up the attack and came back to land a picture-perfect right uppercut of his own in the seventh. Biradi’s variety and activity always kept him a step ahead and earned the Germany-based Italian a deserved decision victory. Referee Lee Every scored the fight 77-75.
Ioan Lutic, 3-8 (3 KOs), decided to declare war on Northampton’s Ben Fail, 6-0 (5 KOs), and engaged the big-punching southpaw in a battle from the opening bell of their six-round middleweight fight. Fail was more than happy to oblige and rather than allowing Lutic to punch himself out, he answered fire with fire, hurting the wild Romanian time and time again with both hands. With less than a minute of the opener remaining, Fail hurt Lutic to the body and followed up with a prolonged, accurate two-handed attack which caused referee, Amy Pu, to stop the shootout. The official time was 2:05 of the first round.
Khalid Ali cruised to comfortable six-round decision victory over Colombia’s John Henry Mosquera at super welterweight. Ali picked some beautiful shots during an impressive opening round, starting the fight with a well-timed southpaw right hook and following it up with well-placed straight left hands as his excellent footwork kept the taller Colombian guessing. Apart from a brief burst at the end of the second round, Mosquera, 5-12 (1 KO), found it difficult to launch any meaningful attacks as Ali calmly controlled the range and pace of the fight.
Afterwards, Ali, 8-0 (3 KOs), revealed that he had torn his right bicep in the opening round and that it had badly restricted his offensive options. Nonetheless, the 60-54 scorecard in his favour was a formality.
Read the full article here
