FORMER champion boxer Femi Fehintola is ‘devastated’ at his third round knockout defeat to Ryan Barrett on Saturday night, says his manager Dennis Hobson.
The super-featherweight, who had set out to defend his English title at Hobson’s Fight Academy night at the Hotel de France, was floored by a powerful right hook nearly two minutes into the round and forced to spend the night in hospital. Hobson also took a knock from the loss – but said that Fehintola’s disappointment had not masked the success of Jersey’s first professional boxing tournament for 20 years.
He said: ‘The event went tremendously – the setting was fantastic, people were very supportive financially and we raised quite a few quid for charity ‘I love putting these events on, and I think people enjoyed it very much, as we had one or two nice words afterwards. These are difficult events to put together because of the criteria set down by the boxing board – for example, we have to find an approved neurosurgeon and fly him in for the event, as well as various other medical staff and officials – and there are one or two things in the running order that we would need to polish up for future events.’
‘One of the highlights for me, however, was the walk down to the arena – there was such a big buzz because it was an English title challenge, you really got the feeling that something big was happening, and you don’t get that with many events. It’s a shame the fight didn’t go our way, and didn’t go a few more rounds, but he went in quick and he got caught. But the build-up gave us a real buzz, and it’s very difficult to achieve that in other sports.’
Pictured: Ryan Barrett (back to camera) is declared winner after technical knockout of Femi ‘Fire’ Fehintola. Dennis Hobson is in the centre of the ring facing Barrett
