Middleweight prospect Oli Edwards moved up to 5-0 on Saturday 25th February with an impressive performance against Scott Hillman (0-17) at Mote Park leisure Centre in Maidstone on a five-fight JE Promotions card, titled ‘The New Era’.
Despite never having his hand raised in his pro career, 35-year-old Hillman had previously never been halted by any of his 16 opponents until he met with Edwards on the last weekend in February.
The officiating referee brought a halt to proceedings at 2minutes-36seconds of the third round when he decided that Hillman had soaked up to much punishment throughout the eight-and-a-half minutes of ring action.
Round 1:
Despite triumphing in his last fight in just 24 seconds, the 21-year-old middleweight from the Invicta Gym in Sheerness intelligently exacted patience in the first round of this bout. He established his jab, range and dominance early, patiently throwing single shots for the first half of the round until he began to make Hillman open up and miss, punishing him every time for the mistakes.
In the closing minute, the home fighter, trained by Ray Askew, began to let the right hand go and put together a few good combos whenever he backed his opponent up on the ropes.
Round 2:
The fight caught fire in the second round as the pair immediately met in the centre of the ring. Edwards landed three right hands and a neat left uppercut within the first few seconds of the round.
Midway through the round, Hillman made a play to escape the ropes by throwing a left and right hook to which Edwards intelligently swerved and countered with a crashing right hook of his own that visibly rocked the journeyman.
The 35-year-old from Eastbourne did land a good right hook of his own a few moments later but Edwards got revenge seconds afterwards with a stiff jab that rocked his head back.
Round 3:
Edwards upped his workrate in the third round, landing clever combos and peppering in precise body shots whenever he got in close to Hillman, who tucked up tight but looked tired from the ongoing beat down.
Then came the best punch of the fight, as Edwards walked towards Hillman in a straight line, the Sussex fighter threw a wild right hand over the head of Edwards as he rolled underneath and landed a crushing left hook and quickly followed up with a hard straight right hand to the head.
He continued to throw shots from angles, landing uppercuts, head shots, and could not fail to land that short left hook to the ribs every time.
In the closing minute of the third, Hillman backed up to the home fighter’s corner allowing Edwards to pick his shots, shifting his feet and pivoting off to create angles until the referee had seen enough and handed the Sussex fighter with his first stoppage in his paid career so far.
It was an intelligent, skilful, and mature display from the youngster and a statement of intent to other fighters in the 160-pound division to be able to stop a fighter that had lasted the distance with every other opponent he had been in with over 16 fights and 64 rounds.
It was Edwards’ second consecutive TKO win having secured his first stoppage in his last outing in October 2016, halting Laszlo Kovacs (9-4) in just 24-seconds.
On the same show, Edwards’ teammate Luke Gibbo (1-0), 25-years-old from Bexleyheath, secured a shutout points win over Ibrar Riyaz (4-115-4) on his pro bow.
The former Team GB boxer took every round on his debut, scored at 40-36, against the seasoned professional in his 123rd bout at super-lightweight.
Edwards and Gibbo made it a clean slate for Ray Askew's thriving Invicta Gym in Sheerness with their two confident victories.