Jarrod Fletcher successfully defends Australian middleweight title against Les Piper – Boxing News
Jarrod Fletcher, the Australian middleweight champion, defended his country’s apex divisional gold emphatically by collecting a unanimous decision win over more experienced fellow countryman Les Piper, in a 10-round bout which was held on April 20, 2012.
The above bout co-headlined the pay-per-view put forth by Adam Wilcock of Fightcard Promotions and the ring for the bout was stretched at Grand Star Receptions situated in Altona North, Victoria, Australia.
The Friday night show was televised live on Australian Fox TV and was headlined by the Women’s International Boxing Association (WIBA) super featherweight championship bout between Diana Prazak and Fatuma Zarika.
Jarrod, 28, was entering in his 12th career bout to defend not only his Australian title for the very first time but also his undefeated win streak. The Aussie proud has collected seven of his wins by knockout and boasts victories over names such as Johannes
Mwetupunga, William Hadlow, Kashif Mumtaz and others.
Fletcher, widely known as the ‘Left Jab’, was seriously overshadowed by his Friday night opponent, Piper’s experience. Les, also 28, was in his 27th career bout and possessed a resume tarnished by nine losses.
Despite the fact that Les lost substantial bouts, experience is something which if capitalised optimally outclasses even the best talent. It is this reason why Les had odds somewhat in his favour and during the whole 10-round showdown, he proved that he
is a quality pugilist by giving stern tough time to the champion.
Les changed his strategy for the very first time and waited for Jarrod to enter his kill zone but the latter understood the scenario and kept himself away from Piper’s reach. Jarrod kept on connecting well-targeted jabs every now and then and did not try
at all to grab a knockout win.
The scores, later on, announced after the end of the 10-round wild ride proved that the battle was a close one. Two of the three designated judges awarded 99-91 whereas the third one allocated 100-92 to Jarrod hence officially denoting him as the winner
and still the Australian middleweight champion.
With this win, Jarrod has caught media’s attention and now his promoters are arranging his bout with Garth Wood. After the bout, the proud champion commented, “Mate, it was a good win because Les turned up with a different game plan and I had to adjust to
it.”
Fletcher added that Les’ change in brawling style was unanticipated, “We all thought that he would try and knock my block off in the first couple of rounds so you could say that it was different that he didn't do that.”
Jarrod now has 12 wins in all his 12 bouts and Les has collected his career’s 10th win.
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