Gavin Gwynne retains Commonwealth lightweight title
Gavin Gwynne made a successful first defense of his Commonwealth lightweight title with a unanimous points decision over Jack O’Keefe in Swansea.
Gwynne, who had won the title in February by beating Sean McComb, looked too big and strong for O'Keefe, and slowly ground him down over the 12 rounds, walking him down throughout.
Reece Carter 120-108, Mark Lyson 119-109 and Kevin Parker scored it 118-110 to complete a comfortable victory.
“It’s maximum violence, isn’t it,” Gwynne said. “There was a bit or ring rust and I started to get my jab out better in the later rounds, but I let him into the fight a little bit. I think I won it comfortably enough.
“It’s been hard for everyone. But I stuck my head down and kept on training. I knew that a fight would come off.
“I’m mandatory for the British title (held by Maxi Hughes) now so I will push on for bigger titles and bigger fights.”
After a messy opening, Gwynne, who goes under the nickname of the Merthyr Mexican, started to get a bit more room for his shots in the third round as he walked down O’Keefe.
And while O’Keefe was busy, he was generally reacting to what Gwynne did, as the Welshman controlled the action.
Gwynne tended to neglect his jab and probably made things more awkward for himself than he could have. And while the workrate and accuracy came from Gwynne, while he looked best when going to the body. O’Keefe was never badly hurt and never really threatened to be stopped.
“The first three or four rounds I played to the crowd, but as soon as I got back to the jab and started making him miss, countering and bringing him onto the shots, I started hurting him. I thought I was going to get him out of there at one point, but he is one tough guy. I was even hurting my hands on his head, that’s how hard I was hitting him.”
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