Boxing: Arthur, Thain and Hastie all triumph as Appleby crashes

Published on Friday 3 December 2010 14:16

It was a case of three steps forward, one step back for the Edinburgh boxers on the undercard of Ricky Burns' successful defence of his world super-featherweight championship at Braehead Arena on Saturday night.

Let's deal with the reverse first: Paul Appleby slipped to the second defeat of his 18-fight career, losing on a split points decision to Joseph Laryea of Ghana in their super-featherweight contest for the WBO Inter-continental belt. The tall wiry African had too much jabbing power and a touch of class, and perhaps such a fight against an unknown quantity came too early in the career of the 23-year-old from South Queensferry.

He was unable to speak to the press after the fight, as he was having stitches put in the savage cut beside his left eye that did not stop him boxing but certainly distracted him from early in the fight as Laryea targeted the cut with his accurate left jabs. When the cut opened much wider in the tenth as the result of a head clash, referee Terry O'Connor could justifiably have stopped the fight, but Appleby was allowed to continue to the final bell.

It may have ended in defeat for Appleby, but over the 12 rounds he produced a committed display of professional boxing, though he was never quite good enough to upset Laryea.

How one judge could give the fight to Appleby by two rounds is a mystery, though. But then the bookies also got it wrong - they had Laryea as the 20-1 underdog. Appleby has now missed out on what would have been a lucrative shot at Burns' title, but there is now the slight possibility that Alex Arthur might yet meet Scotland's only world champion for a rematch.

Former world champion Arthur is the only Scot to have beaten Burns, back in February 2006 at Meadowbank when the then 22-year-old from Coatbridge put up a fine display to take the Edinburgh man to a loss on points.

Arthur was then the British, Commonwealth and European champion but after losing his world title and stepping up a weight, he now feels that he can go for the WBO Inter-continental title at lightweight. On Saturday night, though he looked slow at first, Arthur improved late to beat the much heavier Jay Morris from the Isle of Wight, winning every round of the eight.

"I would say that next year I will be flowing again," said a fit-looking Arthur, "throwing combinations off a really quick jab and with a high workrate.

"I'll be back in the gym in the next couple of weeks. I have to keep my six pack as my wife likes it."

Burns will eventually move up to lightweight, and that is his stated plan. If Arthur can prolong his career - the tenth anniversary of his first pro fight was last month - there could yet be the rematch which both boxers want.

Jason Hastie from Gilmerton had a good contingent of fans backing him in the Braehead Arena as he comfortably beat the very awkward "Rockin" Robin Deakin from Essex for the third time in his career.

Afterwards, Hastie, who is now undefeated in seven pro fights, revealed his ambitions. "It was the biggest night for Scottish boxing since Scott Harrison was world champion and you can't ask for more than being on the undercard of a world title fight at this stage in my career," he said.

"He was shouting about how he was coming up to win and cause an upset but he never came to win, he just came to survive.

"Every time I hit him he held on, but that's two wins in two weeks now, and hopefully I'll get five or six fights next year, and maybe look to Masters or Scottish titles and the British, European and World titles after that."

Also a winner for the third time in three professional contests was former Lochend ABC star John Thain, who blasted out Iain Eldridge of Oxford inside the first minute of their lightweight contest.

Thain said: "I'm so happy, it's my first stoppage win and honestly, I'm ready to fight again now. I really appreciate the fans who came through to support me as it was such bad weather, and their backing helped calm my nerves. I just want to fight soon and keep the momentum going."