Boxing: Below-par McAllister sees bid for European title on home turf ended by injury

Local hero Lee McAllister failed in his gallant bid to win the European light-welterweight championship in Aberdeen last night. Denis Shafikov, the all-action champion from Russia, out-boxed, out-fought and out-toughed the Aberdeen Assassin who retired at the end of the seventh.

The disappointing end stunned his fans, but McAllister was heading for a serious beating as he had injured his left hand badly and could not continue.

It’s the same injury that has bedevilled his career and without his left jab and left hook, he was useless against a southpaw – the injury came when McAllister threw a jab onto the top of the champion’s hard skull.

Shafikov, who nicknames himself Djingis Khan, was largely unheralded as he had never fought in the UK before. We know who he is now, and he has offered McAllister a re-match.

As Commonwealth light-welterweight champion, former Commonwealth lightweight champion, and former WBU lightweight title holder, McAllister has built up a phenomenal following in and around Aberdeen and they packed the sold-out 2,500-seat arena last night.

As the main event arrived, the atmosphere in the arena was crackling with a peculiarly Aberdonian current, and a chorus of The Proclaimers’ 500 Miles led by McAllister himself was all that was needed to just about raise the roof.

The Aberdeen Assassin was in the unusual position of entering the ring first in this, the highest-level boxing match ever held in the Granite City. The unbeaten champion came in second, to a chorus of boos and not a little trepidation on Aberdonian faces – those who had checked his record knew that Shafikov was no mean fighter.

McAllister has never looked fitter or more focused for a fight, as he knew this was possibly a career-making, or career-breaking contest at the age of 29.

The opening round was tentative stuff, McAllister possibly just shading it by throwing more leather. The Scot landed with a solid right to the body in the second, and Shafikov did not flinch, and when the champion began to find his range, McAllister’s face was reddened.

Shafikov’s southpaw jab gave McAllister serious trouble in the third, and in the fourth the champion’s attacks slowed McAllister to a crawl just when he needed to be on his toes.

Shafikov went down at the start of the fifth but Swiss referee Fabian Guggenheim ruled it a slip and then warned the champion for leading with his head.

The champion took the sixth with solid blows, and at the end of the seventh he rocked McAllister with a huge left. McAllister was courageous but in the end just wasn’t good enough to beat an excellent champion. Speaking of his hand injury, he said: “Every time I hit with a left there were shooting pains up my arm.” But he also stressed that there were “no excuses” for his defeat by the impressive Russian.

On the undercard, Lee’s younger brother Matt McAllister scored his biggest success to date against Maltese boxer Daniel ‘Spider’ Micalef, knocking him out in the third round of a scheduled four-round contest.

From the start, welterweight Matt, 23, nicknamed Hawk, picked up some excellent scoring points with solid body punches. At the start of the third McAllister feinted a left jab and Micalef moved right into the path of a following left hook.

Down he went in spreadeagled fashion. Referee Kenny Pringle counted out Micalef who was clearly in no fit state to continue.

“That was the best punch of my professional career,” said McAllister, now unbeaten in three pro fights.

He revealed that he had injured an arm in sparring two weeks ago: “But I wasn’t going to let down my friends and fans. I don’t know what will happen next, but I’ve told my manager Tommy Gilmour I don’t want to be fighting journeymen.”

Confident words from the younger McAllister, and he has a very useful stablemate in young Darren Traynor, the first Scot ever to win the amateur Golden Gloves tournament in the USA. Traynor scored a spectacular knockout in the second round of his super-featherweight bout against London-based Juris Varuskins. Referee Vic Loughlin called it off after one minute five seconds of the second, with Varuskins flat out.

Rising heavyweight Gary Cornish from Inverness had a solid learning experience against tough Lithuanian Igoris Borucha.

At 16st 13lbs, the 6ft 7in Cornish outweighed his opponent by more than two stones and was eight inches taller, but seemed to have difficulty coping with the height difference and Boroucha’s head which drew blood from the Scot’s nose. Nevertheless, Cornish was very professional in his work and Pringle scored all four rounds to Cornish who said: “He was pretty tough and took my shots. Maybe it will be better when I fight somebody my own size.”

Also down from Inverness was Andrew ‘Nessie’ Young who had his opponent Ruslan Bitarov on the canvas twice in the third round before Pringle stopped the cruiserweight contest in Young’s favour after 1m 15secs of the fourth.

The other pair of brothers on the card, Jon Lewis and Travis Dickinson from Birtley, delighted their manager Frank Maloney with two victories inside a total of three rounds.

Light-heavyweight Travis stopped Paul David of Northampton in the first, and John Lewis battered Darlington’s Chris Burton for almost two rounds before the referee called a halt.