Gavin Gwynne held on to his British lightweight title as he battled to a thrilling draw with fellow Welshman Craig Woodruff in Bolton.
It was a great clash of styles, with Woodruff’s quick and direct style facing the pressure of Gwynne. But it became a classic with both believing they had done enough to win and both happy to have a rematch.
Woodruff was busy at first, moving in and out of range and catching up with Gwynne as she advanced. He won the first three rounds, but the question was always whether he could keep up that pace.
His unquestioning style began to work against him in the fourth round, when Gwynne caught him and began to close the gap and Gwynne began to gain the upper hand in the middle rounds.
But they both dug deep and the fight turned into a rift, as they stood face to face punching each other.
With so many close rounds, it seemed like it all came down to the final two. Woodruff caught Gwynne with a big right hand in the eleventh, but Gwynne countered with a left hook. But while Woodruff finished well, so did Gwynne, who could have cut the last one.
Terry O’Connor scored it 116-113 for Gwynne, but Phil Edwards and John Latham scored it 114-114. Kieran McCann was the referee.
“I thought I just cut him off, but he finished strong in the last round. It was very hard the whole time,” Gwynne said.
But Woodruff was convinced that he should have won.
“I know I won that, but I’m not a judge,” he said.
“The only hits he gave me was because I left him. Sometimes I’m that idiotic because I knew I couldn’t get hurt, but that probably cost me.”
Kane Gardner was tested by the elusive Miguel Antin before claiming an eight-round decision at welterweight.
Antin had a good second round, but after that he tended to fight in flurries as he tired under constant pressure from Gardner. Gardner looked best when he was holding his feet and taking straight shots, although the Argentine had success when he opened up.
Referee John Latham scored it 78-75.
James Moorcroft quickly outboxed Nigerian Olaide Fixed, who was knocked down twice before being knocked out in the second round of their welterweight clash.
A left hook to the body dropped Tasabi in the first and then when Moorcroft landed a right uppercut in the second, Tasabi turned and dropped to his knees because he appeared to be hurt around the eye. He beat the count but showed no interest in continuing and referee Darren Sarginson called it off at 1:59. Moorcroft’s record goes to 17-2.
Bolton flyweight Samir Aftab went 2-0 with a straight points victory over Mikey Young, claiming a 40-36 decision after four rounds.
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was a boxing correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001 to 2019, covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights around the world. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications around the world since the 1980s.
