British Scene Weekend Recap

Dave Oakes recaps all the action from this weekend's British super-bantamweight title bout between Jason Booth and Mark Moran.

Friday April 17 Booth Too Smooth For Moran By Dave Oakes Jason Booth became the new British super-bantamweight champion on Friday night after defeating Mark Moran at the Indoor Sports Centre, Leigh, England. Booth took his time in the first couple of rounds, being content to pick his punches and move out of range before Moran had the chance to land anything of note. Moran was struggling to catch Booth clean and was wasting a lot of energy punching arms and missing wildly. Booth picked the pace up in the third and was starting to catch Moran with some hurtful looking hooks to body and head. Moran tried in vain to land something meaningful to help him get a foothold in the fight but failed to do so and was looking seriously out of his depth at championship level. The fourth and fifth were big rounds for Booth as he continued to up the pace against a tiring Moran. Moran’s stamina and strength were thought to be his main advantages over Booth coming into this fight but these two rounds showed that wasn’t the case as he struggled to keep pace with the man four years his senior. He was continually getting backed up and was being caught with quick punches whenever he came forward. The end came in the sixth after an accidental head clash opened up a huge cut above Moran’s left eye. Booth had started the round quick and was teeing off on Moran when the end came. Moran complained bitterly, but in truth, it saved him from taking further punishment with a stoppage for Booth looking like a serious possibility. Booth seems to be enjoying an Indian summer to his career after going through a difficult spell a couple of years back due to alcohol addiction. He’ll now be looking to finally win the European title that has evaded him three times so far in his career. He has options from flyweight to super-bantamweight and will be looking at fights against the likes of Malik Bouziane and Lee Haskins. e-mail Dave Oakes