PAUL Appleby graduated successfully from the most valuable lesson of his career last night as he made a successful first defence of his British featherweight title against former world title challenger Esham Pickering at the Bellahouston Leisure Centre in Glasgow.
The 21-year-old champion from South Queensferry was forced to settle for a unanimous points win after pursuing the elusive and vastly experience challenger for 12 largely one-sided rounds.
Appleby, who has now won all 13 of his fights as a pro
fessional, was determined to become only the second man to defeat Pickering inside the distance and there were moments when he threatened to record the stoppage he was confident he could achieve.
But the 32-year-old from Newark, a former British, Commonwealth and European super-bantamweight champion, proved as durable as he was difficult to pin down and made Appleby work much harder than many had anticipated.
There was no questioning the validity of the verdict in the young Scot's favour, however. If anything, judges Vic Loughlin, Phil Edwards and Terry O'Connor were generous to Pickering with their scores of 116-113, 117-112 and 117-111 in Appleby's favour.
Pickering spent the fight almost exclusively on the back foot, looking to slip and slide out of range of Appleby. The pattern was set in the opening round, Appleby only briefly finding his way through Pickering's frustrating defence when he rocked the Englishman with a terrific right hand.
In the first half of the fight, Appleby appeared unfazed by the challenger's tactics and displayed commendable composure and ring intelligence as he steadily built up a clear points lead.
However, the recently crowned British Young Boxer of the Year gradually allowed himself to become ragged and less disciplined in his attempts to slow Pickering down.
In the ninth round, it even appeared as if the fight might take a dramatic turn in Pickering's favour when he staggered Appleby. Happily for the Scot's vociferous fans, however, Appleby responded like a champion and ended the session with Pickering backed into a corner and in trouble.
Even in the closing rounds, when no-one could have been in any doubt that Pickering required a stoppage to win, Appleby could not resist trying to win the contest inside the distance himself. It put him at needless risk, although he almost succeeded in the final round when he hurt Pickering with a powerful body shot.
Appleby will take more from this fight than he would have done from an early stoppage, however, and will need to put the experience to good use when he makes a mandatory defence of the title against unbeaten Martin Lindsay of Belfast in the early part of next year.
John Simpson, dethroned as British champion by Appleby in June, made a successful return to action on last night's undercard. The 25-year-old from Greenock, who is scheduled to challenge for the Commonwealth title in January, warmed up with a hard-earned but well-merited eighth-round victory over Kenyan featherweight champion John Gicharu.
Despite suffering a deep cut over his left eye in the second round from an accidental clash of heads, Simpson wore Gicharu down with sustained attacks to the body of the much taller man. Referee Paul Graham awarded a 78-75 points verdict in favour of Simpson who illustrated he still has much to offer at championship level.
There was disappointment, however, for Uddingston welterweight Paul Burns who suffered the first defeat of his professional career. The 25-year-old, a clinical physioligist at Gartnavel Hospital, ended the six-round contest in need of some medical attention after suffering cuts to his right eye and head in a thrilling but bruising battle with Stuart Elwell from Walsall.
Burns dominated the opening round but the 30-year-old Englishman took control from the second. Although Burns showed tremendous resilience to withstand some ferocious attacks from Elwell, he could have few complaints at the verdict, although referee Graham's score of 59-55 was perhaps excessively wide.
There was better fortune for Jamie Coyle who was making his comeback after losing to Ryan Rhodes in a challenge for the British light-middleweight title in Sheffield in September.
The 32-year-old from Bannockburn emerged triumphant from a toe-to-toe battle with Wishaw's Paddy Pollock which delighted the Bellahouston crowd. Referee Kenny Pringle stepped in to halt proceedings after one minute 43 seconds of the third round with Pollock wilting under relentless pressure from Coyle.
Glasgow super-bantamweight prospect David Savage produced the most explosive performance of the night, flooring Billy Bell of South Shields twice in the opening round with booming right hooks. The contest was waved off without a count after the second knockdown, Bell requiring attention before he could get back to his feet.
The full article contains 817 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
