Nick Ball blasts Piotr Gudel away in seconds
Featherweight wrecking machine Nick Ball (14-0, 7KOs) destroyed his Polish opponent Piotr Gudel (10-7-1, 1KOs) with three knockdowns in under a minute of the first round in the Arena Birmingham.
Ball appeared on the Foster-Cunningham undercard on October 9 and wasted no time in putting on a show. It was his first fight this year and second appearance on BT Sport but showed no signs of ring rust as destroyed the Polish title contender in less than a minute, decking him three times.
They exchanged jabs for the first few seconds until Ball's uppercut forced Gudel to take a knee in a delayed response which saw him try to continue and cop an extra one-two in the face. This was just 20 seconds in and 10 seconds later, Ball took a back step to provide some room and landed a lovely straight right which downed Gudel again. Ball then launched an attack which consisted of seven left uppercuts which forced referee Bob Williams to step in with just 56 seconds on the clock.
The 24-year-old from Liverpool said after the fight, "Don't get paid for overtime! Thank you to everyone who came to support me, now where's them titles at?!!"
100 miles away in Liverpool, his Everton Red Triangle teammate Peter McGrail made his professional debut in front of a sold-out crowd at the Echo Arena with a six-round punch perfect decision win.
Trainer Paul Stevenson commented, "Nick Ball has now wiped out seven of his last nine opponents inside three rounds and Peter McGrail made a brilliant transition to the pros handling an opponent three weight divisions above his own with classy boxing, speed and power. Big congratulations to both boxers."
Foster vs Cunningham
In the main event, Jason Cunningham continued the Indian summer to his career as he added the British and Commonwealth super-bantamweight titles to his European title with a unanimous decision over Brad Foster in Birmingham.
Cunningham, 32, who went on a run of three defeats in four fights in 2017-2018, produced an upset to defeat Gamal Yafai to life the European title in May, but snapping the unbeaten of unbeaten British and Commonwealth champion Foster is another big step forward.
But he produced an excellent second half of the fight and won it with a dominant final round. For the first five round, the slick boxing Foster had been in charge, but Cunningham warmed to the task and piled pressure on Foster, who also had a point deducted by referee Mark Lyson in the eighth round.
Still, the fight hung in the balance at the final bell, with many thinking Foster had done enough. The judges disagreed, as Victor Loughlin, John Latham and Ian John Lewis gave it to Cunningham by scores of 115-114, 116-112 and 114-113 respectively.
“This is the most beautiful belt in boxing,” said Cunningham pointing to his Lonsdale Belt.
“He was tricky, he probably won the early rounds but I can dog it out. I asked if the judges would give me a fair roll of the dice and they did.
“Never give up on your dreams, I used my failures to learn. Always keep going.”
Essuman vs Ball
Ekow Essuman made a successful first defence of his British and Commonwealth welterweight titles as he knocked out Danny Ball in the sixth round.
It was an impressive display by Essuman, who was giving away height but was beating Ball to the jab early on and used it to set up some destructive attacks.
After being hurt in the third round, Ball stepped on the pace and went for broke and he had some success in the fourth as he stunned Essuman with a right and looked to follow up. ut Essuman was able to turn Ball on the ropes and trapped him there for a few moments.
The end came in the sixth, though, when Essuman landed a huge right and followed up with a two-fisted onslaught with Ball trapped in the corner, that saw him fall face first to the floor, with blood pouring from his mouth, as he was counted out.
Johnson vs Emurlaev
Former world title challenger Callum Johnson had to work hard before claiming a majority points win over Server Emurlaev, of Russia.
It was a patient showing by Johnson, who was the aggressor of the pair but when often found himself picked off on the way in. One judge scored it 95-95, but the other two went for Johnson 96-94 and 99-92.
Davies vs Flores
Super-bantamweight Liam Davies is now 11-0 after a wide ten-round decision over Dixon Flores, of Nicaragua. Two judges gave it 100-90, with one giving Flores a single round, 99-91.
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