10.06.06 – Scott Lawton last night erased any remaining doubts about his pedigree and silenced the South Yorkshire crowd, as he turned in a stunning performance to seize the vacant English Lightweight Title by stopping local hero Stefy Bull in the eighth round at Doncaster Dome. In front of the entire Impact Boxing stable and over one hundred travelling fans Scott lived up to his vow to bring major boxing honours to North Staffordshire..
His performance tonight was testimony to the attitude and dedication of Scott Lawton and to Team Impact, one of which they can all be justly proud and will no doubt serve to spur on Scott’s stable mates.
Southpaw Bull, unbeaten in ten consecutive contests at the Dome, was always going to present Lawton with a difficult challenge, particularly in front of his home support. Indeed, Bull came out firing on all cylinders and found almost immediate success by rocking Lawton with a fierce left hook to the head. Sensing that he might have any early night, Bull continued to press forward during the remainder of the first but, despite edging the first round, failed to press home his advantage. Lawton later confided that he had not seen the hook but said: “I saw every one after the first one coming and made sure that he wasn’t going to catch me again”. Sadly, for Bull, Lawton was too clever and utterly evaded any further attempts by the Yorkshireman to deliver a killer-blow.
Round two saw Lawton level things up as he refocused and delivered a barrage of right hooks to both body and head scoring consistently throughout the round. Round three saw more of the same from Lawton as he used both Jabs and hooks to good effect, Bull, on the other hand, began to visibly lose his potency as he now regularly failed to connect with many of his punches.
In the fourth Lawton, spurred on by his corner, noticeably upped his work-rate and pinned Bull to the ropes for long spells where he penetrated the local man’s defences with both uppercuts and hooks; this served to quell the sound which had been emanating from the increasingly concerned Doncaster crowd. By the fifth the mood of the crowd was becoming infectious and neither Bull nor his corner could no longer disguise their concern. When Scott inflicted a cut to the bridge of his nose during the round Bull’s confidence clearly began to evaporate.
Sensing a lack of conviction from Bull, Lawton applied increased pressure during rounds six and seven. Utilising his entire arsenal with great effect Lawton succeeded in inflicting further damage to Bull’s resolve; the writing was truly on the wall.
Round eight brought an end to Bull’s gallant shot at the title as Lawton reined combination after combination on the faltering southpaw. The end came on the mid-point of the round when Lawton threw a vicious left hook to the body of Bull which left him using the ropes for support as he slowly slid down them. He was up again without any significant delay but indicated to referee Howard Foster that he’d had enough and Foster had no option to wave an end to the contest.
Scott Lawton, Team Impact and the travelling faithful from North Staffs were all clearly ecstatic at this point and the way that Lawton was leaping about the ring gave the impression that he still had plenty left in the tank. During the celebrations both boxers demonstrated a mutual respect for each other but Bull was clearly disappointed.
Magnanimous in defeat, Bull visited the Lawton dressing room twice after the fight to congratulate Lawton and Team Impact on the achievement where he said: “I have never been hit harder or so many times as I was tonight during my whole career”.
Afterwards Mick Carney of Team Impact said: “ We knew that Scott would have to win convincingly tonight and that’s what he’d had in mind during his training but tonight’s performance exceeded our expectations; Scott Lawton was awesome tonight and thoroughly deserves this title and all the praise that he’s certain to receive, we are all very proud of him.”
Mick wouldn’t be drawn in to commenting on the future for Scott and stated that: “We need some time to let this sink in before we consider what’s next for Scott but if he continues to turn performances like tonight’s the future has to be promising”.
He also went on to praise both Stefy Bull and promoter John Rushton: “Stefy Bull is a fantastic guy and is a credit to boxing, he was a worthy opponent and played a significant part in a great fight. He also deserves a lot of credit for the way in which he took his defeat; it takes a big man to come into a dressing room and say what he said and we wish him all the best for the future.”
“John Rushton also deserves a lot of credit for making this fight happen and for tirelessly pressing for it to be made a title bout. I would also like to add that he has accommodated us perfectly tonight and has made every member of Team Impact feel welcome”.
The evening will rightly be remembered as a great victory for Scott Lawton but it also represented a victory for British Boxing and everyone concerned deserves credit. Two boxers contested a great fight and both the victor and the vanquished conducted themselves with immense dignity; the British Boxing Board of Control acted swiftly when the opportunity to make the bout a title fight arose and two sets of partisan fans supported their respective boxers wholeheartedly and behaved themselves impeccably. The only disappointment is that a wider audience did not get the opportunity to witness the contest; what a shame that the TV cameras weren’t there.