Joshua demolishes Bakhtov; Selby edges closer to World title shot

Huge heavyweight prospect Anthony Joshua (9-0) rounded off an entertaining evening of boxing at London’s 02 Arena when he demolished Russia’s Denis Bakhtov (38-10) inside two rounds. Wearing a sinister smile for almost the entire fight, Joshua took to the job of defeating Bakhtov with relish and he opened a cut by the Russian’s left early in first round.

The Watford man’s reactions were lightening fast and he could counter and land on Bakhtov with ease. In the second round Joshua rocked his much shorter opponent with a left hook and when Bakhtov bravely came back at him Joshua landed several thudding blows. Referee Ian John-Lewis stepped in only to separate the entangled fighters but when Joshua connected with a couple more bombs John-Lewis was back in the middle to wave off the fight with exactly two minutes remaining in the second round.

Joshua, who turns 25 next week, can now look forward to a contest with former British champ Michael Sprott scheduled to take place on the 22nd of next month.

Primary support act on the evening was Barry’s featherweight sensation Lee Selby (20-1) who took on Australia’s Joel Brunker (27-1) in a final eliminator for IBF featherweight title. Brunker was supposed to pose the biggest test of Selby’s career to date but the Barry Boy Assassin looked a class above his Olympian opponent.

Brunker took the centre of the ring early on but Selby unleashed quick combinations from the outside. As the fight continued Brunker’s work rate started to slow and his aggression was being dampened by Selby’s ability to finish each exchange with a flurry.

Although Brunker found a home for a couple of good shots in the seventh, Selby was picking the Australian off, leaving his face reddened and swollen. In the ninth Selby landed to the body and with Brunker stranded on the ropes he piled in. The referee made the right call to intervene after two minutes and 49 seconds of the ninth round.

The result means that Selby should be mandatory challenger for the winner of champion Evgeny Gradovich and opponent Jayson Velez who face off on November 29.

Most entertaining scrap of the night goes to the light welterweight contest between Ricky Boylan (12-1) and Tyler Goodjohn (11-3) for the vacant English title. A lot of people expected an exciting fight from this one and they were not disappointed with Goodjohn eventually securing the scrap via a majority decision on the judges cards.

The first half of the first round was neat work from both men but after Goodjohn realised he could navigate freely past Boylan’s low hands he went to town on the Carshalton man. Boylan’s lack of head movement left him susceptible to almost every shot in the book but Goodjohn was still impressive with his accuracy and speed.

The unbeaten fighter took all the shots well and he got a break when he opened up a nasty cut around Goodjohn’s right eye with an accidental head clash in the seventh round. The tone of the fight change slightly after the cut as Goodjohn was less happy to engage. The Cambridgeshire boxer showed skilled footwork and defence to safely reach the end of the fight while still picking up rounds.

Two judges scored the fight 96-94 for Goodjohn while the other made it a draw. Goodjohn was chuffed with the strap and at only 23 he showed he is still capable of making significant improvements.

John Ryder (19-1) had far too much for his late replacement opponent Theophilus Tetteh (16-7-2) in their bout for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental Middleweight Championship. In the first round Ryder struggled a bit to get inside the long reach of the Ghanaian, but from the second round onwards the man from Islington was a bully.

Tetteh resorted to a lot of holding, so much so the referee took a point away from him in the third round. With the holding option no longer available, Tetteh was getting mauled by the relentless Ryder.

By the fifth round Tetteh’s heart had gone and he started holding again. The referee deducted a further point but in the end he showed mercy on the visitor, stopping the bout with four seconds left of the fifth.

The vacant WBC International light welterweight title was the reward for the winner of Essex’s John Wayne Hibbert (14-2) and Argentina’s Leonardo Esteban Gonzalez (22-6-1). Gonzalez was scheduled to face Ricky Burns last week but thankfully for him that idea was scrapped as Hibbert gave him more than he could handle.

Hibbert looked far bigger and stronger than his opponent and by the third round he had established his dominance with the jab. That shot opened up a small cut by Gonzalez’ right eye and the former Prizefighter contender was following up with big right hands. By two minutes 18 seconds of the fifth round the referee had seen enough and stopped the fight, a good call as Gonzalez was no longer offering any kind of attack.

Philip Bowes (9-1) was upset by Joe Hughes (10-1) in their fight for the Southern Area light welterweight championship. Bowes started well and threw his trademark stylish combinations but by the third round he was already finding the going tough.

With the Londoner abandoning his good footwork and spending more time on the ropes, the job for Hughes became a lot easier. The west country man caught Bowes clean with a left hook in the fifth and although he wore it well it was a sign of things to come.

Bowes was being caught more frequently as the fight went on and had a point deducted in the 9th for repeated holding. By the tenth and final round Hughes was landing at will and he put Bowes down with another stinging left hook. Bowes got back to his feet but it was an onslaught and his corner raised the white flag with less than a minute left.

Tommy Martin (10-0) looked very good against Matty Tew (14-3), winning the right to for the English Light Welterweight title. After an even first round Martin’s accuracy gave him the ascendancy in the second and he controlled the fight for there on.

It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Cambridgeshire youngster though as a straight body shot from Tew had him crumpled on the ropes and the referee mistakenly judged it to be a knock down. Martin wasn’t frustrated for long and in the sixth session Martin’s jab worked beautifully to bloody Tew’s nose.

The next round involved more punishment for Southampton’s Tew and referee decided the fight was over 55 seconds into the seventh.

Former English light middleweight champion Erick Ochieng (15-4, Kos 4) had to work hard to find any openings against experienced journeyman William Warburton (13-64-5) but he did enough to get a 40-37 decision over four rounds. After a tentative first round of this welterweight bout ‘The Eagle’ upped his intensity but only found the slightest shred of joy by going to the body of Warburton, who played his part well.

Lightweight Ohara Davies (3-0) didn’t have any problems with Gloucester’s Andy Harris (3-19-1) and sealed the win after 37 seconds of the second round. The Londoner was loading up from the beginning and although some of it was wild, the right hook-left to the body that finished the fight was classy.