Rising stars Andrew Cain and Bradley Strand march on unbeaten
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Everton Red Triangle duo Andrew Cain and Bradley Strand both retained their unbeaten records with big wins at the Telford International Arena on Saturday night, April 16.The talented pair were both boxing on the undercard of a Queensberry Promotions event, broadcast live on BT Sport, featuring headliner Jason Cunningham in his second European super-bantamweight title defence against unbeaten challenger Terry Le Couviour from France. The champion halted the challenger in round six of a scheduled 12.
However, it was Andrew Cain (9-0, 8KOs) who stole the show with an astonishing 10 second knockout! It took just a matter of seconds for Cain to extinguish the threat of the South American champion Pablo Ariel Gomez (15-11-2, 1KO) to win the WBC International Silver title at super-bantamweight.
A clubbing right hand poleaxed the experienced Argentinian and, after referee John Latham’s count, the official time of the stoppage was registered as 19 seconds, making it one of the fastest knockouts ever.
“I was just thinking seek and destroy,” said 25-year-old Cain in the aftermath of his eighth stoppage win in nine unbeaten fights.
A five-time national amateur champion, Cain now has his first professional title which will award the rising star with a world ranking with the World Boxing Council.
Cain is also in line to face the winner of the forthcoming British title battle between Marc Leach and long-term rival Liam Davies, who he beat multiple times as an amateur.
Both trained by Paul Stevenson at the talent-laden Everton Red Triangle gym in Albion Street, there was also a huge win for unbeaten super-bantamweight Brad Strand (7-0, 3KOs), who displayed a combination of skill and spite to overcome once-beaten Tanzanian Ally Mwerangi (11-2, 7KOs).
The African southpaw had lost his pro debut in 2016, but has since been undefeated for the past five years until 25-year-old Strand served him with his only other loss.
A former ABA Elites champion, Brad stepped up expertly in his biggest career test yet. After intelligently plotting his way through most of the first few rounds, Strand rocked his Tanzanian opponent at the end of the fourth, coming agonisingly close to another stoppage win. He followed up in the fifth with a stinging onslaught and kept Mwerangi at bay with pockets of clever, speedy work.
Mwerangi was docked a point in the final round for use of his head and the scorecard read a convincing 60-53 margin for the unbeaten prospect, meaning he had won every single round of the fight.
Strand was pleased with his performance, I felt I boxed well, he was really tough and I hit with a lot more than my previous two opponents, so he had some chin on him! I’m aiming to fight another two times this this year.”
Paul Stevenson’s elite group of pros, which includes Olympian Peter McGrail, have all been working hard to rack up the wins in these early stages of their respective careers and now they are finally being rewarded with well-deserved title shots. Cain has successfully claimed the first championship for the century-old club and next up is Nick Ball (14-0, 7KOs), who fights on the biggest boxing event of the year next weekend at Wembley Stadium on the Tyson Fury vs Dillian Whyte mega-event.
The 25-year-old from Liverpool faces Isaac Lowe (21-1-3, 6KOs), who is ranked 13th in the world, for the vacant WBC Silver featherweight title.
94,000 tickets have been sold to the record-breaking event promoted by Frank Warren, which will be broadcast live on BT Sport Box Office.
Peter McGrail (3-0, 2KOs) and younger brother Joe McGrail (2-0, 1KO) will also be in action at the weekend, on Friday night in Liverpool at the Echo Arena.
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