At the top end of the bill Danny Maka and Ben Murray provided rich entertainment against two young England internationals and ‘comeback kid’ Craig Culkin, in his first bout for years, showed he can still turn on the style.
Culkin beat lightheavyweight Cris Keans, of Birmingham Pleck ABC, on a unanimous points decision after working behind a hard left-jab and scoring with both hands.
Welterweight Maka was not just willing but perfectly able to meet the challenge of Birmingham City and England international Lee Hawkins.
They traded punches throughout the four two-minute rounds but Maka won a close majority decision.
Murray’s lightweight clash against a second England international Michael Bailey was another good clash as the talented Leonis boxer tried to counter a strong opponent who was scoring with hard body shots and fast left leads.
Murray changed his game-plan and reverted to boxing in close, but despite great pace and a great last round he couldn’t regain enough ground and Bailey won on points.
In the first bout of the evening Boyd Munro was landing fast left and rights and, in the third, forced referee Michael Sullivan to give John Hall three standing eight counts in the last round before the bout was stopped in Munro’s favour.
Decio Ferreira won on points after a good contest against Dean Willshee from Burton, the Leonis lad always in control as he worked behind his jab and right-cross.
In Tommy Noel’s meeting with Ashley Kane from Walsall Wood, the Jersey lad was soon landing lefts, rights and hooks to the body, and another two-fisted barrage forced the Birmingham corner to retire their boxer, to Noel’s delight.
Welterweight Andy Heaton shipped a hard right from opponent Steven Groom from Aston, and the bout was stopped.
But it had been close up till that point with Heaton landing his left lead well.
Leonis bantamweight Elliott Kennedy won his bout on the points decision, scoring to head and body as he came out landing left hooks and straight rights on Naveen Saeed from Nechells.
There were also wins for Ruben Legge against Arron Curry, and another returnee Danny Kennedy against Steven Morrison.
Legge stayed cool and picked his punches to win on points and Kennedy, too, won on points after punching from the bell, landing his left hooks and straight rights to the head.
Joey McGrath had a tough return to the ring in his bout against Broderick Murphy.
Although McGrath was landing fast punches, a hard right to the head from Murphy made his knees dip, and the referee, Brian Pollard, stopped the contest.
Talented and experienced Leonis newcomer Richie Boyle, was disappointed when his opponent pulled out at short notice, but team mate Les Bulpin stepped in to box three rounds, with no decision.
Leonis’s next contest is a return match against City of Liverpool on 14 May at the Royal, but the fans went home happy from the encounter with Birmingham.
