Another action packed Ultimate Boxxer tournament took place at the IndigO2, London, as Irishman, Steven Donnelly lived up to his betting favourite tag by taking home the lion’s share of £50,000 and the Golden Robe with victory over the impressive Lenny Fuller in the final of the Super Welterweights edition of the event.
Fuller charged out from the opening bell, but Donnelly was able to control the pace, and landed a heavy right hand to the chin of the Maidstone man, as well as flashy combinations to slow Fuller right down.
Donnelly looked huge in comparison to his opponent, and he rammed home this advantage in the second to end proceedings. With just over a minute gone of the round, a blistering right hand stunned Fuller badly, and with the Kent fighter offering little defence, repeated frenzied attacks by the Ballymena man forced Ian John Lewis’ intervention to crown Donnelly Champion.
Semi Finals
The first semi final saw Lenny Fuller advance with a dominant points win against Joshua Ejakpovi.
Fuller, fresh from his short last eight win over Kingsley Egbunike, started well, landing with decent lead rights, and scored a knockdown right on the bell with a glancing right hand that did look Dubois. Fuller looked a lot fresher than his opponent, and another looping right hand found the mark in the second, as Ejakpovi struggled to unload his shots. Fuller largely took the third round off, but did more than enough for a 30-26 win for all three judges.
Semi final number two was a 50/50 affair, between tournament favourites, Steven Donnelly and Sean Robinson.
Donnelly was using his superior boxing skills to good effect in the opener, and it was easy to see that he has outstanding amateur pedigree. Robinson didn’t stop coming, but Donnelly was able to fire in shots at awkward angles to keep his opponent at bay. A right hand to the head dipped Robinson in the final frame, but he gamely saw the fight out, with Donnelly adjudged a worthy 29-28 winner across the board.
Quarter Finals
The very first fight of the evening was over in just over thirty seconds, as Lenny Fuller detonated a huge right hand on the temple of his opponent, Kingsley Egbunike, for which the Londoner never recovered from. A follow up assault floored a stunned Egbunike, and, although he survived the count, the damage was done. Another monster right, this time to the chin, left the referee no option but to stop Egbunike on his feet.
Joshua Ejakpovi was impressive in his dominant win over the brave Kaan Hawes. His southpaw left hands were causing Hawes no end of trouble, and he perfectly times a left to floor Hawes just over a minute into the first round. After comfortably making the count, Hawes was driven back to the ropes again with a sharp left, as Ejakpovi couldn’t miss the target. The second saw Hawes floored for the second time, as he walked into a left hand which stopped him in his tracks. He again made the count.
Although Hawes tried his best, he was always a step behind, and was badly cut at the side of the face as the bout went to the cards. The scores read 30-25 (twice) and 29-25.
Quarter final three saw Southern Area Champion, Sean Robinson take on Lewis Syrett. It was a give and take opener, but Robinson was able to calmly control the action on the whole in a largely uneventful affair. Robinson took the contest by scores of 30-27 across the board.
The final quarter final saw heavy tournament favourite, Steven Donnelly, show a tremendous gulf in class against late replacement, Ish O’Connor. The 2016 Olympian was ruthless in uncorking a left hand to the body of O’Connor to put the Ipswich man down. A right to the body on the resumption scored knockdown number two. Towards the end of the round, as O’Connor was loading up, Donnelly timed him with a straight left to have his man on the canvas for the third time, with the fight waved off.
