Bournemouth’s seaside crowd filed into the International Centre expecting an all-action main event, and Ryan Garner and Reece Bellotti gave them exactly that.
The first half of the contest belonged to the faster-handed champion, who kept the exchanges at mid-range and stacked up rounds behind short combinations. Bellotti responded with a gritty sixth, bloodying Garner’s nose and nicking a couple of tight sessions as the pace slowed. The tension built through the championship rounds until, forty-five seconds into the twelfth, a perfectly timed left hook jolted Bellotti into the ropes and left referee Victor Loughlin no choice but to wave matters off.
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Earlier, Aloys Junior and Ellis Zorro wrestled through ten untidy cruiserweight rounds for the vacant WBC International strap. Junior’s heavier single shots impressed the judges just a shade more than Zorro’s jab-and-clinch approach, and a trio of close cards went his way.
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The evening’s chief support produced a late knockout when southpaw Carl Fail pulled away from a brave but out-gunned Amir Abubaker. Working almost exclusively off his southpaw jab, Fail banked rounds, survived a spirited burst at the end of the fourth, then uncorked a rapid burst in the eighth that left Abubaker on the deck and referee Kevin Parker waving it off.
Prospect Tony Curtis out-boxed seasoned campaigner Charles Tondo over six brisk rounds, keeping his shape under pressure and countering sharply to earn a 59-55 tally from the referee. Two more unbeaten hopefuls, Taylor Bevan and Mason Payne, stayed perfect with early finishes: Bevan scored a third-round knockdown that persuaded Zdenko Bule to stay on a knee, while Payne benefited from an injury to Octavian Gratii moments after stepping up the tempo in the fourth. Cruiserweight puncher Iman Zahmatkesh dropped Ryan Labourn in the opener and eventually closed the show with a heavy right in round four, and super-bantam debutant Hassan Ishaq picked his moments against Brandon Vargas before overwhelming him midway through the third. The card opened with Frankie Wood banking four tidy rounds at the expense of veteran Cesar Paredes.
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Image Credit: Queensberry Promotions