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Dave Oakes recaps this past Friday's Prizefighter light-middleweight tournament.

Prince Arron battled his way to glory in the Prizefighter tournament at the York Hall, Bethnal Green this Friday. Arron scored a decisive knockdown in the last round of the final to come from behind and edge out Brett Flournoy on points.

Arron got the night underway when he took on George Hillyard in the first quarterfinal. Hillyard never got going in the fight and allowed the much taller Arron too much space for him to get his shots off.

Arron was always in control, mainly due to rangy jabs and a few classy right uppercuts, and was rarely troubled by Hillyard’s sluggish attempts at closing him down. Arron took the fight 30-27 on all three judges’ cards.

The second quarterfinal was the much anticipated rematch between Neil Sinclair and Bradley Pryce. Sinclair had won their first fight, a British title fight over seven years ago, by eighth round stoppage. Both fighters started the fight cagily, neither looked interested in boxing their way to victory as they neglected their jabs and looked only to land haymakers. Pryce just pinched the round on my card; he was the busier and slightly more accurate boxer.

Sinclair landed a few nice jabs at the beginning of the second and boxed well until he looked to be slightly hurt midway through the round from a Pryce straight right. An accidental clash of heads drew blood from Sinclair, a small nick appearing to the side of Sinclair’s left eye. Both fighters were missing more than they were landing and I found it hard to separate them in what was a scrappy round.

The third round wasn’t much better, it was obvious that Sinclair is at the end of his career and that Pryce, despite being only 28, isn’t far behind him. Pryce was looking tired, he kept his hands by his waist and swayed out of the way of Sinclair’s punches rather than blocking them. The Sinclair of a few years ago would’ve made Pryce pay for his lack of defence but he couldn’t land anything of any note on this occasion and allowed Pryce to flick out the jab and land the straight right sporadically to edge the round.

Although the performance wasn’t great, I had Pryce a comfortable winner 30-28. The judges found it harder to separate them and had Pryce winning via a split decision. Howard Foster and Richie Davies scored the bout 29-28 for Pryce, whilst Dave Parris scored the fight 29-28 for Sinclair.

The third quarterfinal was a drab affair involving Brett Flournoy and Danny Butler. Flournoy was too quick and slick for Butler to cope with, his footwork was very impressive but he was also very negative and didn’t land much in an even first round.

Flournoy’s style was proving to be a nightmare for Butler; he tried his best to land but was left hitting fresh air most of the time. Flournoy was still boxing very defensively in the second but did land with a couple of well timed counters from his southpaw stance to take the round on my card.

The third saw Butler land a couple of cuffing left hooks at the start, they didn’t land clean but they were his best shots of the fight. Flournoy remained patient, boxing off the back foot and picking Butler off as he came in before cleverly sliding out of range.

All three judges scored the fight in Flornoy’s favour, two had it 30-27, whilst the third had it a closer 29-28.

The fourth and final quarterfinal saw Steve O’Meara outbox and outpoint Martin Concepcion. The first round was even on my card, Concepcion boxed more cautiously than normal but was looking for the big shot rather than combinations, whilst O’Meara looked well organized defensively but didn’t land a great deal except for a solid left hook towards the end of the round.

O’Meara took control of the fight in the second round; he was pot-shotting off the back foot and uses his speed to good effect. Concepcion looked devoid of ideas as to how he could pin down the fleet of foot O’Meara; he was reaching with his punches which resulted in him being countered frequently. A beautifully timed left hook midway through the round seemed to momentarily hurt Concepcion. O’Meara, sensing he was well in control, became more attack minded and landed some telling blows late in the round.

Concepcion tried to rally in the final round but, despite a gallant effort, he was still coming off second best to the classy looking O’Meara. I was impressed with how O’Meara boxed in this fight, he looked very good in parts and I believe he’s got a lot of potential.

All three judges scored the bout in O’Meara’s favour, 30-28 and 30-27 twice.

The first semi-final was disappointingly one-sided affair. I was hoping to see Pryce push Arron much harder than what George Hillyard did; unfortunately Pryce looked like an old fighter and was on the end of a pasting. Arron’s jab was a potent weapon for him early on; he repeatedly rocked Pryce’s head back and followed it with a number of stinging shots, the best being a left uppercut that stopped Pryce in his tracks.

Pryce endeavoured to attain some kind of foothold in the fight during the second session but yet again, even though he landed a couple of good rights early on, he couldn’t seem to cope with the younger man’s speed, footwork and desire.

The third round was as one-sided as the first, Pryce was trying to pressure Arron but looked weary, Arron was clever enough to take a step back and land flush shots rather than getting embroiled in toe to toe war. Arron hammered the Welshman with a tremendous right uppercut halfway through the round and then toyed with Pryce for the remainder of the session to ease his way to a wide points victory.

Two of the judges agreed with my score of 30-27, whereas the other gave Pryce a round (it must’ve been the second) to make it a closer score of 29-28.

The second semi-final was a much more even affair. O’Meara began the first round the brighter, landing a nice straight right thirty seconds in and boxing well for the first two minutes. The slightly negative Flournoy produced a strong last minute but I thought O’Meara had already done enough to take the round.

Flournoy was more positive during the second round; he was still boxing off the back foot but was landing his own shots as well as avoiding O’Meara’s. At times it looked like O’Meara was struggling to adapt to Flournoy’s southpaw stance, which shouldn’t have been a problem when you consider O’Meara regularly spars James DeGale, the Olympic champion, who’s also a lefty.

A head clash in the second opened up a slight nick by the side of Flournoy’s left eye but the damage wasn’t serious and didn’t hamper the Wirral man. Flournoy took the round easily, his right hooks and straight lefts noticeably being his most successful weapons.

I was expecting a big push from O’Meara in the final round but he never really found the range. Flournoy won the round widely; he was a bit too wise for O’Meara, boxing in and out of range superbly as well as landing two cracking straight lefts that cut short O’Meara’s attempted attack.

I thought Flournoy had won 29-28, so did two of the judges to give Flournoy the victory by split decision, the third judge having it by the same score in O’Meara’s favour.

The final was a close fight and one in which Flournoy will be kicking himself for letting the potential win slip through his fingers. I thought Flournoy edged the first round, he didn’t do a great deal but what he did, he did well. Arron was surprisingly cautious, he had a very quiet round and allowed Flournoy too much time to do as he pleased.

Flournoy was visibly boxing more aggressively than in his previous two bouts, he wasn’t allowing Arron to get into a rhythm and his movement wasn’t letting the much taller Arron establish his jab. Arron did land a good straight right during the round but Flournoy responded immediately with a solid straight left. Flournoy closed the round out with another hard left twenty seconds before the bell to take the round on my card.

I had Flournoy two up going into the third and final round and believed he was well on his way to victory. Arron had other ideas however and dropped his opponent with a clubbing right hand, Flournoy wasn’t badly hurt but realised that it was potentially a pivotal moment in the fight.

He got to his feet well before the count of ten and went charging at Arron with serious intent, he abandoned the smooth counterpunching skills of his previous fights and tried to take Arron’s head off with every punch he threw. Arron was never in any serious trouble, although a right hook seemed to register late on, and saw out the remainder of the fight to sneak the narrowest of point wins. I actually had the fight even but the judges leaned towards Arron 28-27 and 29-28 twice.

It’s a great win for Arron and, as usual with the Prizefighter champions, he mustn’t be too far away from a shot at either the British or Commonwealth titles.

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