It was a lot more of an interesting night than expected in the latest BT Sport Fight Night at the Brentwood Centre on Saturday. The card was depleted by the late notice withdrawal of headliner Daniel Dubois, who had to withdraw from his Heavyweight contest with Razvan Cojanu due to ‘flu. Cojanu will now replace Alex Leopai as Nathan Gorman’s opponent in Manchester next week instead.
Twelve months ago, Penge stylist, Bradley Skeete, was the British Welterweight Champion, with designs of crashing onto the world scene. He was riding high in the WBO rankings, and firmly in the running to fight the then WBO Champion, Jeff Horn. Fast forward to Saturday night at the Brentwood Centre, and Skeete is on the decline. In April, he travelled to Spain to take on Kerman Lajarraga for the vacant European Title. Skeete was down three times and stopped in two brutal rounds. A rebuild was expected, and after a third round stoppage of the 8-6 Fernando Valencia in a six rounder in October, further progress was expected against the relatively unknown Argentine import, Diego Ramirez, and the bout became the new headliner.
Skeete started well enough, and was comfortably out boxing his South American opponent. In the second round however, Skeete was shell shocked by a left hook that dropped him hard. Referee Bob Williams allowed him to continue, but Skeete was on unsteady legs, and a follow up barrage from Ramirez saw a halt to the contest, leaving Skeete’s career in tatters.
It remains to be seen where this now leaves Skeete, as he has already been at domestic level, and has not progressed any further than that level. He owns the Lonsdale Belt outright, so its unlikely he would be keen to return to that particular level.
Sunny Edwards survived a second round scare to defeat the Mexican, Junior Granados on points to win the WBO International Super Flyweight Title. Edwards was decked in the second round, but showed maturity to dominate the fight. Other than the knockdown, it was a one sided affair, with Croydon man Edwards coming through 99-91, 98-91 and 97-92 on the cards.
The other two offerings on the BT Sport portion of the card saw two prospects take on experienced opposition. Hamzah Sheeraz outpointed Jordan Grannum over six rounds at Super Welterweight to move to 6-0, and Ryan “The Piranha” Garner went 8-0 as he stopped Jose Aguilar in the third of a six rounder at Super Featherweight.
