LONDON – Sam Noakes defended his British and Commonwealth lightweight titles by easing to victory over Ryan Walsh at Wembley Arena.
Noakes has won all four of his fights in 2024 – including two for the European title – to continue to build his reputation among the heaviest-handed fighters in his division, but in the 38-year-old Walsh he encountered an opponent determined to resist his power.
He deservedly won via two scores of 120-108 and another of 119-109, and only appeared in contention to record what would have been his 15th stoppage from 16 wins in the moments the referee or Walsh’s corner ought to have been considering rescuing him.
For all that Walsh entered Saturday’s fight with a hunger and freshness beyond most his age, his desire to survive until the final bell and the punishment he endured in doing so will likely have ended his career at this level. His nose bled from the third, and he was regularly hurt by a naturally bigger fighter 11 years his junior. For all of his resilience, he was also too rarely competitive to fight his way into other opportunities.
Noakes, in perhaps the only way he knows how to fight, established a high tempo and sought to land his right hand from the opening bell, and was soon rewarded with the first right to the body. Walsh saw another to the head coming and therefore dodged it but absorbed a left to the chin swiftly afterwards.
A right uppercut snapped Walsh’s head back in the second, before he was forced back by a further left hand. The pace at which the challenger was having to fight just to resist a beating would have discouraged him as much as how hurtful were Noakes’ jabs.
He was damaged by a jab and right hand again in the third, and it was soon after they exchanged right hands that his nose started to bleed and he was hurt again by successive rights to the chin and a further left.
Walsh responded to a double jab and right uppercut by landing a left hand as more blood came from his nose, but he then had some success in subtly controlling the distance between them to undermine Noakes’ power.
The pace slowed somewhat in the fifth, when Noakes regardless continued to throw more punches, and without quite resuming in the sixth the champion succeeded with a right to the chin from close range before falling short with another wild left hook.
An exchange in the seventh highlighted, again, the size of the task Walsh was confronting. After a right uppercut and a right to the chin he landed a left hook that, by comparison, made little dent. “Use them legs, Ry,” shouted his experienced trainer Graham Everett. He then watched his fighter absorb successive jabs.
Noakes landed another hurtful right hand in the eighth, followed by a left uppercut, and then a barrage that left Walsh’s face increasingly bloodied.
Further right hands to the head followed, and occasional lefts. When Noakes landed he did so with authority, but from then until the final round – in a reflection of his recognition that he was on course for a comfortable victory, that Walsh posed little threat and also that Walsh was unlikely to be stopped – he resisted fighting with the very same aggression.
A sustained assault in the final round again put Walsh under pressure, but even with the referee Reece Carter monitoring and watching a left hand snap his head back, he was, in some respects admirably, allowed to reach the final bell.
Read the full article here
