John Wayne Hibbert pins Tommy Coward to become the British Masters welterweight champion – Boxing News
John Wayne Hibbert, the upcoming British welterweight, not only collected an impressive decision win over his fellow countryman Tommy Coward, but also grabbed the very first title of his career that is the British Masters welterweight title, in a 10-round
bout held on June 8, 2012.
The above duo headlined the pay-per-view and entered the ring to fight for the vacant British Masters welterweight gold. The ring for the showdown was set up at Doncaster Dome situated in Doncaster, Yorkshire, United Kingdom and the event was promoted by
Andrew Bulcroft of Stefy Bull Promotions.
The night was co-headlined by the non-title six-round lightweight bout between Maxi Hughes and Ivan Godor. Hibbert, 27, was entering in his career’s ninth bout and boasted an impressive resume with seven wins and just one loss.
The young Essex lad has nailed four of his opponents by knockout and also possesses a pretty decent and damage inflicting jab as well. John was expected to put forth an under par performance as he was coming from a unanimous decision loss to Kevin McIntyre
in his last bout.
His Friday night opponent, Tommy, also possessed an almost equal resume and was entering in his career’s eighth bout. The Yorkshire proud has nailed seven men and three of them via knockout.
Also known as ‘The Machine Gun’, Tommy was entering the ring with an undefeated streak and was coming from a pretty intimidating and impressive fifth round technical knockout win over heavily experienced Jay Morris.
The bout kicked off and both men unleashed over each other a series of jabs while standing in the centre of the ring. Tommy advanced well in the initial four rounds and to some critics and analysts - Coward had the upper hand.
The scenario changed altogether from the fifth round and onwards when John started to get aggressive. Wayne who was sluggish in the beginning started to unload his energy reserves and rattled Tommy every now and then with frequent jabs.
During the sixth round a well- placed jab by John connected Tommy and flattened him on the ring floor for a few moments. The knockdown was later on dubbed as the decisive facet that made Hibbert the owner of the title and gave Tommy his career’s first loss.
The 10-round showdown ended and the bout-referee announced John as the winner by just one point that is 95-94. After the bout, even Wayne’s coach, Mark Bates, was happy and stated, “It was a tough fight and Wayne won by a single round but he was the better
boxer. Getting the belt is great and getting the ten rounds will be great for Wayne. He had Coward down in the sixth with a cracking right combination. But credit to Tommy Coward. He fought well and his team were very fair afterwards in crediting Wayne.”
With this win John has become the British Master welterweight champion and has collected his eight career win whereas Tommy has received his very first career loss.
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