Report from April 28th's St Andrew's Sporting Club

On April 28th The St Andrew's Sporting Club presented their 345th Dinner Show which included esteemed guests such as Former IBF Middleweight King Darren Barker. Joining Darren was former European Super Bantamweight Champion Spencer Oliver; County Durham's own former IBF Cruiserweight Champion Glenn McCrory and the longest reigning Cruiserweight Champion in history, former WBO Kingpin Johnny Nelson, amongst others. Jamie Wilson was also presented the St Andrew's Sporting Club boxer of the month award Accompanying the start studded guests were three contests that saw Coatbridge's Gary Murray in action alongside Greenock's highly rated Sam Ball and the explosive Dundee native Mike Towell. The action began with Welterweight Murray taking on Poland's Sylwester Walczak over four rounds. Murray, who is looking to get into title contention this year, started the fight with quickly looking to set up a big right hand off the double jab. This theme continued in the second round however Walczak looked to make it a messy encounter which eventually caused the Pole to be cut from a clash of heads. The Coatbridge Welterweight looked to put pressure on the opened cut of his Polish opponent, landing effective left hooks and straight right hands. Murray looked comfortable as the final round came to an end as he showcased a nice variety of punching as was maybe unlucky not to get the tough Sylwester Walczak out of there. The referee scored the contest 40-36 in favour of Murray who moves to 8-0. Next up was the impressive Sam Ball. The Greenock native has notched up two knockouts in his first four outings heading into his fifth contest against well tested Latvian Zaurs Sadihovs over four rounds. The contest started fast with former amateur star Ball displaying an excellent variety of punches; landing strong left uppercuts and right hands to the body. Greenock's Ball looked to up the pace in the second round as he looked to pressure his Latvian opponent; possible looking for a stoppage victory as he utilised solid attacks to both the body and head. Ball continued his good work rate throughout the final two rounds as he continued to deliver a meaningful catalogue of shots to both the body and head of Sadihovs. The well supported Scot cut the ring off well forcing his Latvian counterpart into exchanges throughout. Ball showed tremendous variety in his punch output throughout along with quality ring generalship as he cruised to a 40-36 win. The last contest of the evening saw Dundee's explosive 'Iron' Mike Towell take on Spanish based Argentinean Miguel Aguilar over six rounds. Towell is known for starting quickly and he continued the trend against Aguilar, working the body and then up to the head of his Spanish opponent. Towell scored a knockdown off a right uppercut and that was all she wrote as the referee stopped the contest handing Mike Towell another stoppage victory as he targets a British Welterweight title shot. Former Commonwealth Champion and British and IBO World Super Featherweight title Challenger Ian McLeod gave his thoughts on the evenings entertainment. "I thought the show was excellent. There were quality and entertaining guests such as Darren Barker and Spencer Oliver and the boxing was superb. I was really impressed with Sam Ball, he showed an excellent variety of punches. I've got high hopes for him and think he'll go far in the professional ranks." The next St Andrew's Sporting Club show is on the 26th of May and features highly rated prospects Jason Quigley, Kash Farooq and Aston Brown.