In an epic night at York Hall on Saturday night 20/1 outsider Johnny Coyle stunned the York Hall faithfully with great performance to be crowned PRIZEFIGHTER welterweights 4 champion and take home the £32,000 winners cheque and trophy.
Little known with only 4 fights under (3-0-1, 2 KO’s) his belt before Satuday night Coyle is now a name to watch out for and seems to have a punch to back things up dropping Paddy Gallagher twice in the opening round of the final before cruising to a points victory over the 3 rounds 30-26 on all 3 judges scorecards.
The first quarter final of the night saw Erick Ochieng take on Paddy Gallagher and with both guys down in the 1st round it was a real cut and thrust of an opener for the tournament with Ochieng winning the bout on points 29-28, 29-27 and 30-26 only to collapse and be rushed from the ring to hospital by paramedics. Luckily all seems now to be OK and Ochieng puts it down to heat and exhaustion. Gallagher was then back in the mix for the semi’s.
Quarter final 2 saw talented London based Dubliner Dean Byrne in with Mark Douglas who on the night appeared too awkward for Byrne and too the fight on all 3 cards 30-27.
Quarter final 3 saw Sam Eggington in with popular South Londoner Johnny Garton. Garton struggled against Eggington who controlled the first round and well ahead in the second and with Garton cut to the right eye. The Garton corner did the right thing and threw in the towel.
Quarter final 4 saw former European lightweight champion Jason Cook in with the virtually unknown Johnny Coyle. The bout started well and Coyle look to be getting the better shots in there from the off and cruised to a points victory over the 3 rounds 30-28, 30-28 and 30-27.
Semi final 1 – Paddy Gallagher v Mark Douglas and the tough Belfast kid dubbed The Pat-Man looked far more experienced than his 5 fight record firing in the big shots from the the opening bell and landing at will and with Douglas very unstable on his feet the ref stepped in and waved the action off.
Semi final 2 – Johnny Coyle v Sam Eggington and this was a fight that could have gone either way and the judges also saw that and gave Coyle the bout on a split decision 29-28, 29-28 and 28-29.
The rest of the sold out York Hall card saw Ricky Boylan cruise to a points victory against tough Pole Krzysztof Szot 60-54 over 6 rounds with Boylans strenght telling. Although he did look marked up after the bout which for me the Pole shaded at least one of the rounds.
Canning Town cruiserweight Wadi Camacho took just 4 rounds under new trainer Peter Sims to destroy Croatian Toni Visic with Visic down at the end of the 3rd and only the bell saving him. Camacho got to work once more in the 4th and only 1.04 into the round the ref had seen enough and called a halt to the action. Great TKO win for the MACHOMAN.
Top of the bill saw John Ryder in a British middleweight title elininator against Jez Wilson. The bout was a controlled performance from Ryder and at times I was left thinking he should be doing more. Then in the 9th Ryder turned up the heat and stopped Wilson at 1.09 of the round. After the fight trainer Tony Sims said that Ryder had sustained a hand injury in the 3rd which would explain his performance.
