Markham (11st 3lbs) was topping the bill in his hometown against York’s Matthews (also 11st 3lbs), who was in his first fight back since losing on points to Chris Eubank Jr eleven months ago. The away fighter came out of the blocks quickly, throwing much more leather in the opener.

Markham can be a slow starter, and was waiting for opportunities to pin Matthews down, but the Pocklington Rocket’s movement was successful in limiting the amount of shots Markham was able to place.

The Grays fighter was patient, landing the more accurate and telling blows in the second, but was again outworked. Matthews was putting some tidy combinations together, although these were taken in the main on Markham’s gloves due to a tight ‘hands up and march through’ defence.

Matthews couldn’t breach this often, and didn’t deliver his shots with quite enough power to make Markham to think twice about his own approach, which scored with fast, single punches including a hard right hook to the body. This is Markham’s money shot, and has contributed to three stoppages from his previous three fights.

The Pocklington Rocket was Markham’s most difficult assignment to date. He continued to deliver quick combinations from the back foot which thwarted Markham’s attempts to unload with his usual barrage of power. Although Markham was yet to find a rhythm to slow Matthews down, he hurt the York fighter with a body shot just before the bell in the fifth. While taking a few trying to find his way in, the effectiveness of Markham’s eye catching right hooks to the body increased in the seventh.

Matthews was softening and tiring, and not as quick at avoiding Markham’s advances as he was earlier in the fight, but a burst of activity in the eighth put Markham briefly in the corner. The Grays fighter responded in the latter half, and the ninth saw Markham land more hooks, with Matthews coming back well at the end of the round. Both fighters stepped up the pace in the closer and traded in the middle.

Jeff Hinds scored 99-92 for Markham, which for me was a smidgeon wide, but the right man won. On workrate and shot variety, Matthews edged it early on, but for accuracy, aggression and power, Markham was always in front.

Markham hadn’t been past six rounds before. Matthews has, on four previous occasions, but this was his first fight in eleven months. The fitness levels of both certainly can’t be questioned. They came in 3lbs under the middleweight limit, and looked fit as butcher’s dogs.

Promoter Steve Goodwin provided Markham with the opportunity to box in his home town, for his first belt, in front of television cameras – something not all fighters get the chance to do. The bout was supposed to be aired live on Eurosport from 8pm, but some sort of scheduling cock-up/bump led to it being shown on Eurosport 2 at 2am. Aired it was, nonetheless.

Markham boxed well, and a logical next step for the Grays man would be to look towards a Southern Area title, currently vacant at middleweight, and last held by British champion Billy Joe Saunders.

Undercard report to follow

Read the orginal article on news.boxrec.com

Goodwin Promotions, in association with Robert Waterman, stage their first show for the channel. The card also features Cambridgeshire’s Tornado Tyler Goodjohn (7-2) and Dave O’Connor (4-4) from Plymouth, who both weighed in at 9st 13lbs for their Masters ten rounder at light welter.

TV coverage starts with an intriguing eight threes clash between unbeaten Czech Stepan Horvarth (10-0) and Birmingham’s former British title challenger Max Maxwell (16-17-3).

Fresh from a shutout victory over former British cruiserweight champ Shane McPhilbin, Crayford’s Menay Edwards (9-2) takes on plucky Latvian Arturs Kulikauskis (9-15-3), who on his last visit to the UK also recorded a shutout over a former British cruiserweight champ Leon Williams (the man McPhilbin beat to gain title in January last year).

Other fights on the card include the debut of the London heavyweight AJ Carter, who takes on Preston’s Paul Morris (5-14-2).

Tickets are available from goodwinpromotions.co.uk. The action gets underway on Eurosport (SKY channel 410) from 8pm.

This award also recognizes the appreciation of the people of Essex for the contribution in enhancing the life of the community.

Cindy appears to have around 103 jobs at the boxing club that also include press officer. Her work in keeping the news of the club in the headlines is much appreciated by the media.

Lee boxed against Connor Ward from Northside A.B.C (Manchester) on Sunday 3rd March at Everton Sports Centre in Liverpool.

Youngster Levi Lee will now go on to box for England in the three nations Championships to be held sometime in April in Scotland.

Team mates twins Jay Healy 42kg and Jake Healy 40kg both lost their bouts in the semi finals of the competition held at the Charles Dickens Centre in Portsmouth.

Jake Healy lost to J Khan of Repton Boys Club on a very tight majority decision and brother Jay came out against Henry Turner of Repton Boys Club also on a majority decision.

Head Coach Scot Johnston was aware that the judges on the day were clearly not in favour of the Essex Boxers so he instructed Lee not to win on a points decision as things were clearly not in favour of the club as he believed both Jay and Jake had done enough to secure themselves a place in the finals.

Lee was not going to leave anything to chance so he went out and stopped his opponent Eddie McDonagh from Hooks A.B.C in the first round ensuring that his place was safe in the finals of the competition.

Looking leaner and meaner, John won the fight at the York Hall in Bethanl Green on a majority points decision.

John edged nearly every round in a tiring ten round contest.

And so it is with John McDermott who has a tilt at the English heavyweight title at York Hall on Friday night.

John has a new training base, a new sponsor and a new momentum having benefitted by sparring out in Russia recently.

Should be a fascinating contest.

STANFORD’S own “John” Wayne Hibbert lost a controversial decision at the Civic Hall.

Hibbert faced Derby boy Dave ‘Rocky’ Ryan (29).

From the second Hibbert entered the hall it was obvious who the crowd came to see, the noise was incredible! A chorus of “There’s only one Wayne Hibbert” filled the room as he made his way the ring and continued throughout the entire fight.

This didn’t put off Dave Ryan though who fought through the noise and composed himself excellently against the local boy.

The bout offered blow by blow entertainment and wow what a fight! Both fighters were swinging away at each other through the whole 10 rounds, I don’t know how either of them were still standing by the end of it, but they certainly both had their eye on the prize. Wayne Hibbert lived up to his nickname ‘John Wayne’ by coming out to the ring with the air of confidence John Wayne always had in his movies, he was focused and looked at the top of his game.

‘Rocky’ Ryan also lived up to his alias, showing he certainly could pack a punch and anything getting in the way of his right fist was going to get hurt; to be honest I wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of either of these guys and they both fought a good fight, giving the crowd everything they came to see – excitement, skill and excellent sportsmanship! Hibbert however found himself down by 2 points by the final count, with the judges awarding a 97-95 victory to Dave ‘Rocky’ Ryan.

Controversy set in as the crowd went wild, both in celebration of Dave’s victory and in commiseration for Wayne. I can say with some certainty, this will not be the last time we see these two come head to head in another skull crushing main event.

IT WAS a good work out and a fifth win in a row for Tilbury’s Matt McCarthy as he put in an impressive performance at Impulse Leisure’s Civic Hall in Grays.

The crowds really showed their support for local boys Wayne Hibbert and Matt McCarthy who both had bouts.

Welterweight McCarthy (19) went up against Jan Balog (30) and retained his unbeaten record scoring in at 40-36 by the end of the match.

Balog took a count in the third round but managed to find his feet coming back strong mid way through the 10 round bout; however by this point McCarthy knew what he had to do, and was dead set on doing it almost knocking Balog to the deck for the second time after a fury of jabs and body shots.

Balog stayed up though and provided the crowd with a good fight ending in success for Tilbury boy ‘Mighty’ Matt Mcarthy.

Both fighters showed great sportsmanship, congratulating each other at the end of the fight holding each other’s arms up and posing for pictures as a sign of respect to each other and the sport.

Friday 8th February at East Ham Working Mens Club Ben Davey 19yrs 54kg boxed against Charlie Keating from Five Star A.B.C on the Newham Boxing Club Open Show.

Davey won his bout by a unanamous decision. Davey is a very fit boxer and has learnt to come forward enabaling him to mix it up in bouts by sitting on his back foot and using his strength against his opponents when needed. Next up on the same London Show was Klayden Russell-Meade 12yrs 34kg who boxed against A Ishfaq from Southend A.B.C. Klayden won his bout by a majority decision “Ginge” as named by his team mates is proving to be quite a talent. He is quite a character in the Gym so it is very refreshing for the coaching staff to see this boy putting it all together in the ring.

Levi Lee 14yrs 57kg, Jay Healy 13yrs 42kg and Jake Healy 13yrs 40kg all attended The quarter finals of the National Schoolboy Championships held at Harlow Dog Ttack on Sunday 10th February. Lee and Jake Healy both received walkovers on the day and Jay Healy boxed against C Mansell from Hemel Hempstead winning his bout by a unanamous decision seeing all three through to the National Semi Finals held in Portsmouth on the 17th February.
Club chairperson Sindy Overy said that to have three Local Boys in this stage of such a prestigeous competition is such a massive achievement for a small unfunded club and would like to personally thank the coaching team for their commitment which enables the youngsters to reach such potential.

Kieran Redding 20yrs 60kg is through to the Eastern Counties round of the Senior A.B.A Championships making him The Elite Essex Champion for 2013. Redding will be boxing next in The Eastern Counties round of the championships to be held at New Astley in Suffolk on the 1st March. Redding is a very experienced boxer that has had nearly 60 bouts since joining the gym at the age of 11. He is a great aspiration to the younger boys in the gym and helps out whenever possible. He.. attends most of his team mates bouts making him a very popular all rounder in the gym. Team Captain Redding has a very good chance of winning the Elite Senior A.B.A’s this year and the whole of the club are very much behind him.

TILBURY’S MATT McCarthy made it four in a row with a very straight forward win against Danny Donovitch at York Hall, Bethnal Green.

Matt, who trains out of Gateway club in Corringham really had a gentle work out in the six two minute rounds –

But the highlight of the bout was when Matt put putting Donovitch on the canvas in the fifth round.

After the fight, Matt spoke to Kugan Cassius from I-Film London about the fight.

McCarthy’s next fight may well be a four round contest to be held at Grays Civic Hall on May 18.

Wayne will be fighting Dave Ryan for the English Light-Welterweight eliminator on Saturday March 9th at the Civic Hall.

Dave is a dangerous opponent having won 13 of his fights. But he can be beaten.

Wayne has stepped down to 10 stone for this one. YT caught up with him in training to see how preparation was coming along.

For details of tickets contact: 07709 451337

The last one was at York Hall, Bethnal Green and it was a tough one as his opponent was a durable if unspectacular boxer.

Matt is back at the York Hall for Feb 24th. His loyal fan base will be there.

YT caught up with Matt in the Spartans Gym in Corringham.

Follow him on twitter @mattmccarthybox

Five years ago, on a Sunday morning, Brian’s daughter, Katie, died, in a road traffic collision on the A13.

No parent has done more to keep the memory and spirit alive. It is for those reasons that Brian has launched the Katie Johnson Community Trust Fund.

The fund was launched at a memorial service at St Mary’s church, North Stifford.

The family received tremendous support. Kirsty Darling, mother of Karis-May Darling, who has run a fantastic campaign to build a community centre in memory of her daughter, who died from a strain of meningitis in 2011.

They were also supported by boxing promoter and Sky TV pundit, Spencer Fearon, who made a pledge to attend the service.

Miss Teen Galaxy Essex, Brogan Price also attended the service. Brogan told YT: “When I heard about Brian’s campaign, I just asked if there is anything we can do. They are a very brave family and myself and my family will do all we can.”

A spokesperson said: “Young people not in employment or education can gain a boxing qualification and gain support to find employment or education.”

YT went down to Athlone House in Tilbury to speak to a number of boxers about the project.