Dave Oakes previews Friday night's British featherweight title match-up between champion Martin Lindsay and challenger Jamie Arthur.

Martin Lindsay makes the long awaited first defence of his British featherweight title on Friday night when he faces former top class amateur, Jamie Arthur.

Lindsay, 15-0 (6KO’s), won the title in sensational fashion last April when he stopped the unbeaten champion Paul Appleby in the sixth round. The normally composed Lindsay was dragged into a war by Appleby and responded by bettering the Scot at his own game. The impetus swung back and forth until Lindsay landed a sense scrambling right hand that hurt the champion, the follow-up punches had Appleby pinned against the ropes and left the referee with no alternative but to wave the fight off.

Lindsay was expected to build on the Appleby victory in rapid fashion; things don’t always go to plan in boxing, though. Lindsay was with Hayemaker Promotions at the time and his career stalled in the aftermath of the demise of Setanta, whom Hayemaker had an exclusive deal with. The only fight Lindsay’s had since winning the title was a routine points victory over Alfred Tetteh last November.

The other noticeable win on his record is the ninth round knockout of Derry Matthews. Lindsay struggled to work Matthews out early on but rallied late to knockout Matthews with a vicious left hook. Lindsay’s knockout record is deceptive; he isn’t thought of as a big puncher but is more than capable of knocking most fighters out when he gets them to walk onto his accurate blows.

Arthur, 16-2 (4KO’s), is undefeated thus far in his comeback, after originally retiring in 2005 following two consecutive defeats. He’s a classy boxer who won gold at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the first boxer from Wales to do so since the legendary Howard Winstone.

He strolled through the first nine fights of his professional career, winning them all without too many problems. He looked as though he was a fighter going places until he suffered a third round stoppage defeat to fellow Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Haider Ali, in his tenth fight.

The loss came as a result of cuts acquired from a bad head clash and wasn’t deemed too damaging to his career. The defeat he suffered in his next fight was, he was on the end of a one-sided beating at the hands of useful journeyman Harry Ramogoadi and was stopped in the fifth round. The combination of injuries, his susceptibility to cuts, and the disappointment of the Ramogoadi defeat culminated in him walking away from boxing at the age of twenty-five.

He made his comeback nearly three years later and has slowly worked his way into title contention. He beat the undefeated Akaash Bhatia in a close and exciting eliminator last June to secure this fight and he seems to be fired up to put on the performance of his career.

I can see this being a bit of a chess match in the first few rounds, both boxers prefer to use their skills but both can also go toe to toe when needed to. I think the fight will come to life in the middle rounds and believe the naturally stronger Lindsay will start to dominate proceedings the longer they go. Arthur will put up a spirited effort but Lindsay is the clear favourite and I feel he’ll finish strongly to stop Arthur in the last four rounds.

On the undercard...

The undercard sees former British bantamweight champion Gary Davies returning to the ring for the first time since losing his title to Ian Napa. He takes on another former British champion in Andy Bell over eight rounds. Davies was on a good run of results until facing Napa and I believe he’ll have a return to that form to stop Bell sometime around the fifth.

Shinny Bayaar takes part in a six rounder against Najah Ali. Bayaar will use the fight as a sharpener in preparation for his British title defence against Ashley Sexton, which is scheduled for May.

Olympic bronze medallist David Price takes on Martyn Grainger over six rounds. Price is unbeaten in four fights and shouldn’t have too many problems taking care of Grainger. I expect Price to get the job done inside two rounds.

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