DUBOIS PULLS OFF A CHRISTMAS CRACKER

THE FRANK WARREN COLUMN
By Frank Warren

IT WAS LIKE a bumper Christmas box at our final fight night of the year on Saturday and hopefully the show delivered something for everyone.

It was that sort of night. From Sunny Edwards picking himself up off the floor to continue his highly-skilled pursuit of titles galore, to Tommy Fury wowing his huge band of followers with a quick-fire showstopper, to Daniel Dubois just doing what Daniel Dubois does.

In amongst all that we had Liam Williams putting on the performance of the night against the WBO No.1 ranked middleweight in the world and our new heavyweight hopeful David Adeleye announcing himself in an emphatic fashion. Archie Sharp also continued his impressive run of form with a further defence of his WBO title belt.

And they were just the TV slots!

I must admit that if ever having so much talent on our books at any one time becomes a problem is when so many of them are deserving of being profiled on TV.

We want to deliver the exposure as widely as possible and give the public an early snapshot of the richly talented crop of fighters we have coming through, but it is simply not viable each and every time.

For instance, Troy Williamson is now more than worthy of having his abilities showcased to the nation and the ‘Trojan’ won his first title on Saturday in a thrilling and pretty brutal encounter with the incredibly tough Dario Socci to win the IBF European super welterweight title.

Troy’s turn will come and the key, when the opportunity arises, is to seize the moment. This is what the likes of Archie and Sunny have done over the last year or so and they are now BT Sport regulars. Hamzah Sheeraz and Denzel Bentley, also from our southern contingent, are travelling along a similar path and, ultimately, the sooner you are in position to step up and be in fights the public want to see, the sooner you will be performing to a wider audience.

Back to big Daniel and he is just a phenomenal puncher and he did the trick again against Kyotaro Fujimoto. The leverage and power he gets into his shots is something else and, as I have been saying for ages now, he has got a great jab that keeps on improving.

Debut man David showed that he could well be capable of joining the heavyweight party and the fact he was loading up a bit was understandable with it being his first pro fight and being so keen to impress. It was also pleasing to see what a great following David has already built up and his people made a right old din inside the Copper Box.

Tommy wasn’t hanging about either and, although we all know he wasn’t up against a potent force, you have to remember that he is only a novice himself. It is how you go about your work though and Tommy was pretty devastating in the way he went about getting the job done.

Like I mentioned before, one of the high points of the night was Liam Williams putting himself in pole position for a shot at the WBO world middleweight title with a stunning performance against the American Alantez Fox.

The 6ft 5″ Fox, who was hugely confident of maintaining the WBO status quo, was completely dismantled by Liam, who has moved firmly into the world class category.

What the move to Dominic Ingle up in Sheffield has done for the big punching Liam is get his feet well and truly sorted out. Clever footwork and keeping the correct distance is second nature to him now and he has got the natural balance all the real top fighters have.

Liam can now await the WBO making the order for Demetrius Andrade to defend against him following his forthcoming fight against Luke Keeler. Or if Keeler wins we could have a cracking Ireland v Wales shootout.

Just as a sidenote, I know that starting a show at 3pm is not ideal and presents a bit of a marathon for those who like to sit tight from start to finish. The reason for this is due to the venue being subject to a curfew and you cannot leave anything to chance.

You want to ensure that every boxer gets the fight he has trained hard for and to guarantee this you have to factor in the appropriate time. If you don’t and every fight goes the distance then you risk letting people down.

We always look to keep our fighters active and busy so they can work their way up the card and ultimately secure the TV spots.

Finally, I would like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and thank you for your support throughout the year.