Terry Flanagan earned his shot at the WBO Lightweight title with a victory over Stephen Ormond at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall, after the Irishman was disqualified in the tenth round for excessive use of the head.
It was a thrilling and absorbing encounter between the rival 135-pounders from the opening bell with plenty of hard shots coming in from both men. Flanagan, coming into the fight as the undefeated British Champion, showed the sharper skills, while Ormond, the defending WBO European Champion, preferred to trade and try to land the harder shots.
In the ninth round Ormond was deducted a point by the referee for using his head and then warned two further times. Then in the next round Ormond again used his head on Flanagan and the referee this time stepped in to wave the fight off, ruling excessive use of the head.
With current WBO World Lightweight Champion Terrance Crawford expected to vacate the belt shortly and move up to campaign in the light-welterweight division, Flanagan will now have to wait to find who he will fight for the title out of the number one ranked American Juan Diaz and Japan’s number two ranked Takahiro Ao who meet in a WBO ordered Eliminator.
Unbeaten Flanagan took his record to 27-0 and adds the WBO European crown to his resume, but he’s thrilled to be now fighting for the WBO World title.
He said, “It was hard in there, Ormond is a tough, tough, fighter, but I had to overcome a fighter like him before I know that I’m ready for the world title. He probably got frustrated in there because I was getting on top with my punches and he used his head. It was a heat of the moment thing, but until the referee stepped in it was a thrilling fight for the fans and I’m over the moon to be now fighting for the world title.”
Carson Jones Stops Brian Rose in 1st
Carson Jones shocked the hometown favorite Brian Rose on Saturday night in Blackpool. Jones scored a 1st round stoppage after buzzing Rose and landing a barrage of shots.
The referee jumped in to wave off the action, much to the dismay of Rose, who is already calling for and demanding a rematch. Rose was talking retirement if he wasn’t able to defeat Jones, and was hoping for a title shot if he could get past him.
He certainly feels as if this was an unjust ending to the fight, and it’s going to be a tough pill to swallow. We’ll see if there’s a rematch put together or what ends up happening for each man.
Doran lands Prizefighter glory
Tom Doran put in the performance of his life to stop Cello Renda in the final of the Prizefighter Middleweights III at the Winter Gardens in Blackpool on Saturday night.
Doran carried an unbeaten record into the ring but only having one fight since May 2011, the Connah’s Quay man was one of the outsiders for the trophy.
The 27 year old put Craig Cunningham down in the opening round of their quarter-final – the fourth bout of the tournament – to land a spot in the semis, where he dumped out pre-tournament favourite Luke Keeler 29-28 on all three judges’ scorecards to set up a meeting with Renda.
The Peterborough man was in his second Prizefighter final having faced Martin Murray in November 2008, and Renda rocked Doran in the opening round of the final. Doran dug in a great body shot in the second that looked to take plenty out of Renda, and a booming left-hand in the third round from Doran put Renda on the canvas and although he manfully made the count, the Peterborough man was in no position to box on, and Doran had the big stoppage win in the final.
“I’ve kept the unbeaten record, I’m £34,000 richer and had amazing support, it’s been a dream night,” said Doran. “I was out for a while but had three fights in an hour tonight!
“Cello is a massive puncher so you have to take the sting out of him and that’s what I did. I like to prove people wrong and that’s what I have done, it’s onwards and upwards from here now, this can lead to some big things for me.”
Renda landed a second crack at the final at the expense of local favourite Jack Arnfield in a cracking semi-final, with Renda edging out Arnfield on a trio of 29-28 scorecards, and he floored Liam Conroy three times inside the first 90 seconds en-route to a first round stoppage win in the first quarter-final of the night.
Hometown favourite Arnfield edged past Mick Hall in the second quarter-final with the Preston man pushing him hard but Arnfield caught the judges’ eye enough to
Luke’s Keeler and Crowcroft served up a cracking third quarter-final, with Keeler looking slick in the opening round but Doncaster’s Crowcroft coming back at the Irishman to turn it into a great battle, in which Keeler hurt his hand in the bout but was able to fight in the semi-finals.
Prizefighter Middleweights III results
Quarter-final 1: Cello Renda beat Liam Conroy: first round stoppage (1.40)
Quarter-final 2: Jack Arnfield beat Mick Hall: split decision 30-27, 29-28, 28-29
Quarter-final 3: Luke Keeler beat Luke Crowcroft: unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 29-28
Quarter-final 4: Tom Doran beat Craig Cunningham: unanimous decision 30-26, 30-27, 29-27
Semi-final 1: Cello Renda beat Jack Arnfield: split decision 29-28, 29-28, 28-29
Semi-final 2: Tom Doran beat Cello Renda: unanimous decision 29-28, 29-28, 29-28
Final: Tom Doran beat Cello Renda: third round stoppage (1.16)
