Southampton’s Golden Ring boxing club was the venue for Tavistock’s Freddy Owen and Cameron Underwood’s appearances on Saturday, writes Tony Fennell.

Fred was the first in the ring to face Leo Holdsworth from the home club. From the first bell with little to choose between the boxers physically the pace set was fast.

Toward the closing stages of the first round a beautifully timed and executed right hand had the referee give Holdsworth a standing eight count.

Round two saw Fred score more powerful shots, his speed of punch and quick footwork allowing him to correctly position himself to land telling blows with both hands.

Thirty seconds into the round a telling back hand from Fred caught Holdsworth and the referee called a halt while the doctor inspected the damage to Holdsworth’s nose. A minute later the similar punch caused the doctor to be called to carry out another inspection of Holdsworth, all was well though and the bout continued. By now Holdsworth had taken the brunt of some powerful indicators of the power of Freddy Owen. The third round was crucial for the local man to give his supporters something to cheer about and he set about the task with a lot of hard punches and good work but failing to land any scoring shots due to Freddy Owens speed of movement and defensive skills.

Freddy Owen was declared the winner by a unanimous decision.

Later that evening Cameron Underwood entered the ring to face another local boxer, David Sheehy. A 78kg contest, Cameron started fast and flurries of blows were thrown by both boxers.

The second round saw the pace increase if that were possible and good scoring blows were thrown by both boxers, a particularly good combination from Cameron saw Sheehy take three scoring blows in quick succession.

It was another close round though with both scoring points. A good straight left from Sheehy half way through the third round saw the Tavistock man take a backward step, his first step back due to pressure. The rest of the round saw both boxers giving their all and the pace slowed toward the end.

A very close contest and much appreciated by the audience. The decision was eagerly awaited and on this occasion the split decision verdict was given to Sheehy.