Light-heavyweight prospect Mickey Ellison moved up to 3-1 on his record with a shutout points win over Curtis Gargano (0-39-1) on July 15th at the iconic Winter Gardens in Blackpool.
It was an improved and confident performance from Ellison to get back to winning ways after experiencing his first career loss last April at the hands of former Central Area titleholder Carl ‘Born 2 B’ Wild (15-26-5).
The 27-year-old’s signature punch – right uppercut – found its intended target consistently throughout the four-round light-heavyweight contest and worked to slow down and visibly hurt the 33-year-old Middleton opponent, who was relieved to hear the final bell sound.
He said post-fight, “Back to winning ways now. I felt more relaxed in there.”
“Me and Alex [Matvienko] have been working on a few things, putting a few things that went wrong right. The loss has inspired me to come back stronger and want it more.”
“He [Gargano] said that I hurt him in the last round and I was catching him and marking him up. Had some good, tough sparring with Darryl Williams [English super-middleweight champion] in training camp and it’s just helped me to come on.”
Audaciously taking on an Area champion in just his third pro fight was due to each of their away opponents withdrawing just one day before their respective fights, so they were paired together instead.
Ellison realised it was a bit too soon but also saw Wild as a winnable fight. He reflected, “I knew it was a winnable fight and I thought I got the better shots in but he was a bit busier in there. I’ve learnt more from that fight that knocking out 10 journeymen could ever teach me.”
Ellison has fought four times in eight months and plans to keep just as busy next season.
“I want to be back out as soon as possible, as soon as the new season is back on,” he said. “I’m going to stay in the gym and keep to the same weight, and as soon as Steve [Wood] has got a space for me, I’ll be back out again.”
The former North West amateur champion debuted last October against the aggressive Bryn Wain (0-13), recording his first win in the paid code with a shutout points victory.
He then raced back to the ring again just six weeks later to secure a second points decision against the tough Hungarian Krzysztof Golec (1-5-1).
His third fight was against the aforementioned Carl Wild, resulting in a points loss, and his fourth and latest appearance was win no.3 against Gargano.
The headlining fight on the 28th weekend of the 2017 saw Ryan Mulcahy (9-0) defeat Ben Wager (12-9-1) on points to lift the Central Area super-lightweight title.
Jack Catterall and Tyrone Nurse, who both meet in October for the British title, are both former champions of this belt and, going a little further back in history, Ricky Hatton was also a titleholder back in 1999.
