Hillman marches on towards title tilt
Kent boxer Martin Hillman (7-2) outpointed foreign opponent Tamas Laska (8-8-1) over six rounds at Maidstone’s Mote Park on June 4th to clock up his fourth consecutive victory and now looks ahead to a possible Southern Area title challenge against Kingsteington’s Jamie Speight next.
The 25-year-old featherweight from Orpington took the decision at 59-57 on referee Kieran McCann’s scorecard on the first weekend of June.
It was the first time in 16 years that professional boxing was back on at the Mote Park venue with a packed JE Promotions’ seven-fight ‘Destruction’ card, featuring two International title fights and a whole host of local talent from Kent.
In what was originally set to be a defence of Hillman’s International Challenge belt over eight-rounds, a last minute change brought the bout down to a six-rounder at super-featherweight instead.
It was a cagey first round with Hillman a little overeager and guilty of loading up too much on his shots, subsequently missing the target wildly at times.
Laska was clearly experienced and good on his feet, managing to keep away from trouble until a right hand over the top almost toppled him over midway through the second round. Another well-timed straight right shortly afterwards unsettled the European again as Hillman begun to dominate the fight.
The Kent puncher planted a clean right hand on the chin of Laska in the following third round who returned fire with a right of his own whilst Hillman was half-turned facing the opposing corner.
The home fighter tried desperately to land the big shots on his slippery opponent, who managed to move away from danger repeatedly throughout the bout.
The Hungarian decided to showboat in the sixth and final round but soon thought twice when Hillman landed a well-executed, thunderous right hand flush on his chin. It was the fourth consecutive win for Hillman who now has his sights set on Jamie Speight’s Southern Area featherweight title next.
Destruction
Destruction was yet another sold-out event for JE Promotions with nearly every seat in the arena occupied.
Headed by former pro Joe Elfidh, he commented, “We’ve got some great sponsors on board now such as Kent Trade Frames and Campbell Nutrition, and we’ve got a good partnership with Invicta Gym and Fight Box Gym so we’ll be looking at putting more shows on in and around Kent in the future.
“Grant Dennis, Dave Jones and Martin Hillman have all done eight-rounders now so I’ll be looking for Southern Area title fights and I’ll put purse bids in so I can stage the fights in Kent.
“We’ll be back in Maidstone again in September-October time.”
Top of the bill saw Chatham’s Grant Dennis climb off the canvas in the second round to out point Czech southpaw Jan Balog 78-73 to lift the International Challenge middleweight belt.
Co-headlining the packed show, Dave Jones, a 34-year-old unbeaten heavyweight from Queenborough, moved up 7-0 on his record with a convincing 78-73 points win over the 39-year-old Czechoslovakian Jiri Svacina (12-20) to win the International Challenge heavyweight belt.
There were also wins for Leysdown’s Louis Greene (4-0), Chatham’s Charlie Shane (2-0), Maidstone’s Chris Matthews (4-0) and Orpington’s Martin Hillman (7-2).
For tickets to the next show, visit https://www.facebook.com/JEsportsnetwork/ or call 07883 943994