Scott Lawton’s career hangs in the balance after he was comprehensively beaten by Leva Kirakosyan in his home town of Stoke on Friday night. Kirakosyan reclaimed the vacant European super-featherweight belt as he dished out a display of speed and power to leave the former lightweight contemplating his future in the sport.
It was basically over before it began as Kirakosyan dropped Lawton with a stinging right after 40 seconds from which the local hero never fully recovered. You couldn’t help but be impressed by the Armenian who looked like a giant menacing meerkat as he marauded around the ring, gloves up close to his face, stalking Lawton down and unleashing wave after wave of relentless attacks.
It was just attack after attack from Kirakosyan, with Lawton looking like he would rather be anywhere else than in the ring and his huge army of fans stunned into silence as their hero failed to produce the goods. Bizarrely after one Kirakosyan onslaught near the end of the second round Lawton got a standing eight count, who even realised they still existed? If Lawton had any idea where he was he probably would have been surprised to see it, instead he welcomed the opportunity to breathe some air deep into his lungs.
The blitz continued into the third round until after yet another vicious combination from Kirakosyan forced referee Soren Saugmann to call the whole thing off. Lawton staggered to his corner, eyes wide and looking like he had no idea what just hit him.
In truth there was no comparison between the two, Lawton didn’t make his extra inches in height count, in fact Kirakosyan turned them into a disadvantage by moving from side to side and forcing Lawton to punch downwards. The little Armenian resembled a fox that had got into the hen coop; he had the time of his life in there chasing Lawton around the ring and unleashing a succession of fast combinations, taking insignificant damage in return.
What Lawton does now is anybody’s guess. He moved down to super-featherweight in pursuit of a world title and now he has failed to gain the European strap it seems unlikely he will get many more chances. When John Murray knocked him out in June last year, it looked like the end of the road for Lawton and now his quest to reinvent himself as a super-featherweight has failed, it could well be over for the Stoke fighter.
As for Kirakosyan he is enjoying a real Indian-summer to his career. At 36 years old he is on a six-fight winning streak and looked a tough cookie to beat. He has very fast hands and packs a lot of power, Lawton had his gloves high trying to hide from the Armenian all fight, and the two looked in totally different classes.
So a catastrophic defeat for Lawton in front of his home crowd that leaves him with a lot of questions to ask himself about his future in boxing. He was never off his back-foot and never even showed a glimpse of the quality needed to take out a pugilist of Kirakosyan’s stature, a sorry night indeed for the local boy.
Kirakosyan meanwhile proves that sometimes it does pay to break the law.
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