Nick Webb (6-0) marches on unbeaten with a win over Welshman Hari Miles (10-9)
Webb was taken the distance for the first time in his career on the Haye Day II show at The O2 on May 21st, live on freeview channel Dave.
The Chertsey KO specialist moved up to 6-0 with the 40-36 points victory but didn’t have things all his own way as he was taken past the first-round for the first time in his professional career.
The travelling fighter from Blackwood, known as the ‘H-Bomb’, slipped down to 10-9 in what was his debut performance at heavyweight, having campaigned at cruiser for the entirety of his nine-year-long career.
The 6ft 4” Welshman hadn’t fought since December 2013 when he suffered back-to-back losses to interim WBA World cruiserweight titlist – Youri Musafu Kalenga, and Wadi Camacho – the current Southern Area cruiserweight champ.
Not content to just make up the numbers, Miles gave his undefeated opponent a stern examination on the biggest night of Webb’s fledgling career.
The landslide points win suggests it was completely one-sided but Miles landed plenty of clean, heavy shots which Webb took well, proving that he can take a dig as well as dish one out.
Webb outworked Miles throughout the contest and came close to finishing his foe in the second half, but the Welshman managed to survive the shots that came his way, spoiling Webb’s work whenever possible.
The latest triumph for Webb gave him 12-minutes of ring time, prior to this contest the KO artist had only spent half of that time in the ring for all of his previous five contests with all victims falling within two-minutes – Hrvoje Kisicek (10-15) on his debut at the York Hall with just 56 seconds on the clock; Martin Szatmari (2-1-1) in 1:57, Ferenc Zsalek (15-46-6) in 1:19; Angel Angelov (2-2) in an astonishing 26 seconds, and Zoltan Csala (9-5), halted with a bone-crunching uppercut in 1:19.
Post-fight, manager Scott Welch confirmed that his prospect will be next out in July and looking to reach 10-0 by the end of 2016.
The main event saw David Haye (28-2) knock down Arnold Gjergjaj (29-1) three times before referee Terry O’Connor waved off the fight midway through the second round.
Shannon Briggs (60-6-1), 44-years-old, went one better by stopping his man – Emilio Zarate (20-17-3) – in the opening round of their scheduled 10-round contest to set up a summer showdown with the Hayemaker.
Arguably the best fight of the night saw Lee Markham (16-3-1) deservedly crowned the new English middleweight champion with a hard-fought unanimous points win over ‘Smokin’ Joe Mullender (9-2).
Southern Area lightweight champion – Floyd Moore (14-6-1) came back from a third round knockdown to defeat a former conqueror of his – Yordan Vasilev (18-43-2) 58-56 on points.
Ollie Pattison (4-0) and Daniel Keenan (2-0) extended their winning runs with points wins over Bryan Wain (0-9) and Dwayne Sheldon (0-3) respectively.
Nightclub proprietor turned prizefighter – Fahad Al Thani moved up to 4-0 with a dazzling display to stop Hungarian opponent – Bela Juhasz (14-9) just past the halfway point in round two, with future Man United boss Jose Mourinho watching intently at ringside.
Kay Prospere (9-0), 31 from Luton, was made to wait all night for his fight and came away with a UD win.