BEN Vaughan (11-1), back headlining in his hometown, got in some valuable rounds in a one-sided points victory over Octavian Gratii at the Mercure Hotel Friday night on BCB Promotions ‘Fully Loaded’ event.
The hard-hitting welterweight was coming into the fight on the back of his first career loss, a fight of the year contender with world-ranked Ekow Essuman, and showed why he deserves to be back at that level with an excellent display of power punching and variety that had the Romanian-born Gratii tucking up at every opportunity.
Vaughan’s previous two opponents before Essuman had failed to see the end of round one, but Gratii is a veteran of the game, and despite taking some heavy punishment, he used his smarts to see out the action mostly unscathed.
A small nick on the eye did not seem to affect the current Midlands Area Welterweight champion, who dominated the bout from start to finish, coming away with a 60-54 shutout decision on referee Chris Dean’s scorecard.
“It was overall a good performance; he’s a tough, durable opponent, said Vaughan. It’s nice to be back out and great to be back in my hometown, but now I want to get on the big TV shows again. I want a big title next to my name in 2025, and I’d take Conah Walker for the British or Sean Noakes for the English next.
Elsewhere on the card, Nico Michael (7-0) moved his unbeaten record to seven wins from seven with a career-best display against Tanzanian Adam Yahaya.
The popular bantamweight prospect is closing in on his first title shot and put in a mature performance, showing patience and choosing his punches carefully, taking a 60-54 points decision.
Dempsey Madden (6-1)had to overcome a tricky cut and the aggresive style of Shane Smith on route to a 39-37 points decision.
The Daventry man had Smith wobbled in the opener with a big left hand, and it looked like he may get his career knockout, but in his first fight in nearly a year, he had to settle for a distance victory.
Guillaume Azagier (1-0) got his professional career off to the most exciting of starts, scoring an early knockdown against Jenson Irving before engaging in a four-round war, getting the 39-36 points win.
It was another solid display from unbeaten Klinton Baptiste (2-0), with the highly touted light heavyweight beating Tom Ramsden 40-36 in the show’s opener.
