LIAM CAMERON

ABA champion Liam ‘Cannonball’ Cameron sent the fans from a packed Sheffield City Hall ballroom home happy last night after his third win as a pro, 60-55 over come forward Stourbridge trier Kevin McCauley.

Promoter Fight Academy fancies their charge a great deal, one of them mouthing to me ‘He’s a future world champion’ during his arena style entrance. He lost the first session quite clearly on my card as McCauley (10st 12½lbs) continually pressed, getting through with hooks to the body whilst Cameron calmly stuck to his orthodox jab. It was to be the visitor’s only round as by the end of the second session, the Sheffielder’s better class became apparent.

McCauley kept having a go and was actually warned by Michael Alexander (who refereed throughout this nice five-bout card, all six-twos) in the third round for trying to irritate his opponent with some verbals.

Cameron (11st 5½lbs) was both resolute and unflustered though and had an impressive fourth round, displaying a nice right cross, uppercut combination. He stuck to his game in the fifth and through his bravado, McCauley acknowledged a clean Cameron right hand with a nod.

Nice, quick flashes were on display in the final round from the home favourite but McCauley, game as a pebble, dug in and although he resorted to rabbit punching for a spell, he made it a good scrap. Future world champion? A rather bold prediction for a young un who’s ultra-orthodox and only 3-0. Worth keeping an eye on though.

When I arrived and looked at the fight list, I was pleasantly surprised to see the name of Mark Krence in the home column. The Chesterfield butcher is a small hall favourite in these parts but I had no inkling he’d ever box again, having not been seen since June 2008. He opened the show, beating wild-swinging journeyman Hastings Rasani 59-56 on referee Alexander’s card. I had it 58-57. Krence looked in good nick (15st 2½lbs) but still the Zimbabwean (13st 13lbs) gave away a lump of weight – not that it deterred him in the slightest.

Most of the rounds were nip and tuck and followed the pattern of Krence boring forward, using his weight to keep Rasani on the ropes and winging away, not always effectively. Krence took the opener for me, the second was shared but I gave the visitor the third and fourth as his shots, though wild, were getting home more often.

Krence brought home the bacon though (sorry) in the last two rounds, displaying better boxing skills, helped by Rasani getting on his bike for the last few minutes.

I doubt the Derbyshire man, now 24-6, can improve on previous efforts he’s made.  In his day (which isn't now) he was an Area and English champ and had two losing tilts at the Lonsdale. Perhaps he’s looked at some of the domestic matches and thought he’s no worse than most of them. He’s probably right.

Trainer Dominic Ingle jokingly likened his man Adam Kelly’s win over Matt Seawright to Ali-Liston II. The link was the ‘phantom punch’.

Kelly (10st 4lbs) opened and closed the contest with a single right hook which, though not appearing a destroyer, caught Seawright (10st 12½lbs) cleanly and put him straight down. The Tamworth man (now 3-26) got unsteadily to his feet and referee Alexander waved it off after only 16 seconds. I don’t know what ‘The Outlaw’ got paid for his win but he should work it out by the second and tell his pals.  The 22-year-old moves to 11-7-1.

Another Ingle man, Lee Duncan, fared less well. He must be frustrating to deal with. Coming off the back of two very good away wins against Daniel Cadman and then unbeaten Joe Smyth, the Sheffield light-heavy was hoping to kick on against cross-city rival Kyle Whitham. The pair boxed a draw at this venue last October - that was Whitham's debut.

As it turned out, Whitham (12st 1 1/2lbs) came out a winner 58-56 on the ref’s scorecard; I gave Duncan (12st 6lbs) a point more. The victory was based solely on desire and workrate. This gave Whitham the opener but Duncan showed his better boxing skills in the second and third, jabbing and generally being elusive

Inexplicably, he seemed to go to sleep in the fourth and Whitham grabbed the invitation to take over. The fifth was a close session but Whitham sealed it in the final round with an eye-catching left hook. Duncan just didn’t do enough.  Fair play to Whitham - he worked hard and seemed to want it more.  He's now 1-0-1 whilst Duncan is 2-4-1.  (I have since heard that Duncan was unwell after the match - which explains the performance.  He didn't look right.)

Small hall promoters love fellas like Israr Asif. The Sheffielder has arrived late to boxing which has given him time to make a load of friends, all of whom seemed to turn out for his winning debut against Mansfield’s Chris Lewis. I thought there was some bizarre Pakistani-Shirley Crabtree link as 150 bearded blokes roared ‘Easy, Easy!’ before I realised they were getting behind ‘Izzy’.

Asif (14st 10½lbs) won 59-56 but I liked Lewis’ efforts a bit more, scoring it 58-57. The Sheffield man boxed well off the jab in the opening two sessions, a task made a bit easier by Lewis (15st 4lbs) giving away several inches in height.

Despite this disadvantage, Lewis took the third round on aggression whilst Asif took a little breather before getting back to work in the fourth. His left hand dropped lower and lower as the fight went on and he’ll need to watch that in future fights. He was right to think he’d done enough in the last – he gave it away doing little else than spoiling and grabbing; perhaps the pace was getting to him. His size – unusually big for a British boxer of his ethnicity – and fan base make him an interesting addition to the small hall scene.

A tidy little card this, well ran too – the bouts fairly rattled along and there was even time for fans to have a beverage of their choice in Sheffield alluring city centre afterwards too.