Lewis Crocker vs Artem Haroyan – Results & Post Fight Report

Conlan Boxing promoted at the famous Ulster Hall in Belfast, and at the top of the bill, Lewis Crocker defended his WBO European welterweight title with a seventh round win against Artem Haroyan.

Crocker was making the second defence of the title that he won in August last year with a seventh round stoppage of Louis Greene, while Haroyan came into this one on an unbeaten run of four contests.

It was competitive action early on, but Crocker always seemed a step ahead of the Armenian, taking the wind out of his sails at times with body shots. Haroyan was competitive though, and kept ’The Croc’ busy and alert, but Crocker made the breakthrough in the sixth, a left bang on the chin dropping the challenger. He survived the count, but Crocker went on the attack once more, and the bell came to Haroyan’s rescue. The minutes rest wasn’t enough though, as Crocker whipped in a body shot early on in round seven that felled his opponent for a second time, and this time he was just about unable to beat the referee’s count.

Padraig McCrory had a tricky start to his WBC International Silver super middleweight title defence, but then blasted out Celso Neves in the second round. A massive counter left hand flattened Neves heavily, and he did well to beat the referee’s count, but was clearly unsteady. The ending was inevitable on the resumption, as another cuffing left dropped the visitor again, and the referee had seen enough, dispensing with the count.

In what was a cracking looking match-up on paper at lightweight, the actual fight didn’t disappoint, as Sean McComb defeated Ronnie Clark over eight pulsating rounds of action. McComb boxed well, but Clark constantly poured forward, not taking a backwards step even when under fire. ‘Public Nuisance’ McComb was adjudged a 79-74 winner on the referee’s scorecard.

Dublin southpaw Paul Ryan moved to 2-0 with a stunning first round win at middleweight against Spain’s Daniel Esquiesabel. A flurry of body shots dropped the visitor within 30 seconds, and a follow up body assault finished the job.

James McGivern took all six rounds of his lightweight affair with Russia’s Rustem Fatkhullin, while Cain Lewis and Juan Lin fought to a 37-37 draw over four rounds, also at lightweight, as the pair remained unbeaten.

The show opener came at super welterweight, where Daniel Keating got the better of Jack Ewbank over four rounds to remain unbeaten. A straight right hand had Ewbank on the deck in the opener, and Keating swarmed over his opponent, but in the end settled for a 40-35 win.