Johnny Fisher – BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK

A weekend or two have passed since I conjured the headline. The braggart with the fast smile and quicksilver punches, Ryan Garcia had doused Conor Benn in lashings of humility so copious in quantity even Benn’s disproportionate purse would be inadequate compensation for a man with too much pride in too little qualification for such an exalted platform.

It struck me that the duality of meaning in the word class, well, it ventured to remind Benn the Junior that he’d not had the required schooling to compete and equally, the juggernaut of promotion propelling him forward had ignored the gulf in class evident in the pairing.

As the Romford Bull Johnny Fisher clung to victory with his legs disobeying him and his gasps for air betraying the poker face he was trying to offer last night, I was reminded that British fighters propelled toward levels they’re ill-equipped to succeed at is a dangerous pastime.

The fact Fisher is meeting that reality so soon only confirming the poor state of domestic level shows in the UK in the aftermath of the distortion caused by Saudi Arabian riches.

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Where there's a will there's a way
Proverb

As a thick snake of blood oozed from a cut on Fabio Wardley’s busted nose, punches smeared and splattered it across his brow and cheek. His teeth grinding into his mouth piece beneath. A giant, visible to Wardley through a mask of warm claret, lumbered closer, the possessor of greater experience, heft and the initiative. The Ipswich man grimaced but chose to walk forward. Toward the tumult. Where many would hold or fold, Wardley elected to fight. Not to box, but to fight. In that distinction, in Wardley’s willingness to risk when vulnerable and hurt, the British Heavyweight title, with all its abundant history, was won.

Gorman proved unable to match or repel Wardley’s spirited response to the success he’d enjoyed in the first round and fell to defeat in the third. The white towel of surrender fluttering on to the canvas to confirm the fighter’s shallower resistance was spent. By then, Gorman had been on the floor twice in the second and once in the third.

Wardley’s youthful combination of flaws and enterprise suggest many equally entertaining nights lay ahead.

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