05.05.08 – Friday night at Harvey Hadden Leisure Centre in Nottingham, England, Frank Maloney Promotions held a fight card headlined by European super bantamweight champion Rendall Munroe, who made a successful title defense against European Union titlist Salem Bouaita of France..
Munroe kept a tight defense early, picking off the roundhouse efforts of the Frenchman with great patience and allowing the visitor to largely wear himself down before going on the offensive in the fifth round.
Once the reigning champion opened up with his southpaw attack, Bouaita was forced onto the backfoot until being invariably cuffed along the ropes by Munroe. The sixth saw Munroe increase the pressure, shaking the challenger with a sizzling power left hand.
Munroe, 15-1 (7), really found range in the seventh and punished Bouaita, 19-13 (6), with a lashing two-handed attack that had the challenger’s corner pulling the Frenchman out of the contest at the end of the frame, claiming an arm injury.
Chief support saw British bantamweight champion Ian Napa wage war in a phone booth with hardened Irish titlist Colin Moffett for twelve spirited rounds and come out the winner and proud new owner of the Lonsdale Belt.
Moffett sought to press Napa and the champion let him do it, setting up shop along the ropes and forcing the challenger to throw. It was a masterclass in upper body movement from Napa, who won rounds with buffeting counters that found the holes the willing Ulsterman’s defense but still Moffett kept on the pressure.
In the later rounds, Napa, 17-6 (1), began to use his pure boxing skills to great advantage and consistently drilled Moffett, 8-12-4 (3), from range, even flooring the Belfast battler in the eleventh frame, before posting a wide points verdict of 119-108, 119-109 and 117-111.
On the undercard, one of the brightest young stars of the Maloney stable, light welterweight Scott Haywood, shone against seasoned French campaigner Frederic Gosset, becoming only the second man to finish off the veteran early over his last 30 appearances.
Haywood, 18-2 (4), proved to have too much firepower for his rival from the start as the lanky 26 year old unleashed his full arsenal, peppering Gosset, 11-44-2 (3), with a two-fisted torrent that produced a cut in the first before a lethal body assault finished the Frenchman off at 1:06 of the second round.
Three more rising young talents under the Maloney banner were on display with middleweight Kevin Concepcion, 11-0 (3), putting in six quality rounds against iron-chinned journeyman Ernie “Gypsy Boy” Smith, 12-67-1 (0), to remain undefeated with a score of 60-54 on referee Nigel Gill’s scorecard.
Light middleweight Sam Webb, 10-1 (3), returned to the fold with a sterling effort against durable road warrior David Kirk, 11-71-3 (0), canvassing the southpaw in the second before outboxing his foe over six to a score of 60-53 while 20 year old light heavyweight Adie Whitmore, 8-0 (5), dispatched fellow combatant Carl Wild, 6-8 (1), with a booming right hand at 2:15 of the first round.
The rest of the bill featured high energy novices going at it in a quartet of four rounders that saw middleweight Olly Newham, 3-0 (2), belt out Paul Brown, 2-1 (1), in the final frame of an all-action thriller, super feathers Barrington Brown, 5-3-2 (2), and Dean Mills, 2-1-1 (1), slug it out in a highly competitive draw, middleweight Kevin Hammond, 2-0 (1), retire opponent Gavin Brook, 0-1-1 (0), after the first round and professional debutant Steve Jevons, 1-0 (0), saw off Bheki Moyo, 0-8-1 (0), at welterweight.