Super-Featherweight – BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK

Article first published at BigFightWeekend.com

In a rugged, gritty contest Liam Dillon won the vacant British Super-Featherweight title by Majority Decision against Qais Ashfaq on the Josh Kelly undercard in front of a boisterous crowd in Newcastle, England.

A title rich in history and always hotly contested, the chase for the Lonsdale belt delivered once again with a natural style clash between southpaw boxer Ashfaq, who falls to 12-2, and the marauding offence of Liam Dillon, 13-0-1.

Both men had successful phases in rounds and at different stages of the fight. Dillon scored two knockdowns, in the 4th and 9th, to secure the win, though neither were heavy and one, contentious; Ashfaq seemed to stumble forward but was being hit with modest body shots as he touchdown, they proved vital to the win.

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Shavkatdzhon Rakhimov won the vacant IBF Super-Featherweight title in Abu-Dhabi Saturday night in the latest in a sequence of major fights to take place in the Middle East. A venue that provides convenient fight times for global audiences and inconvenient questions about money for promoters. For Zelfa Barrett, a fluid counter puncher from Manchester, the fight offered an opportunity to confirm his ability at World level. One he took, despite the disappointment of defeat in the 9th round.

Barrett’s success with left and rights to the body, stinging right uppercuts to head and body and a willingness to punch in combination despite his movement based strategy and determination to avoid short-range exchanges, brought a points lead heading toward the championship rounds.

Pressure fighters like Rakhimov don’t tend to worry about the minutiae of scorecards.

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There was a theme of sadness running through the final chapter of Carl Frampton’s outstanding career as a professional fighter this weekend. In part because of the apparent inevitability of the defeat to Jamel Herring, and in part because his story drew to a close far from home, far from the fans he loved and the family he yearns for.

Dubai, the crudely affluent capital of UAE, was an ill-fitting suit for a man who has flown highest in the traditional boxing heartlands of Belfast, Las Vegas, and Brooklyn. The location, missing the accoutrements of the historic stages and bigger broadcasters Frampton has boxed on, added to the sense of lament for a prime long since passed and the glorious nights of his twenties. A two-weight champion, with victories over Leo Santa Cruz and Nonito Donaire, Frampton eked a great deal from that fleeting peak and while the Autumn of his career has been unfulfilling, he departs in tact and with enormous respect from those he encountered.

It isn’t the ending Frampton hoped for, or perhaps deserved, but with the unrelenting tick of a fighter’s career, he hadn’t the time to wait for a post-pandemic normality to resume. Money he had, time he did not.

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