JAMES Fryers will look to rebuild after he lost on a split decision in his British super-featherweight title eliminator against Maxi Hughes at a packed out Grand Ballroom in the Europa Hotel on Saturday night.
Fryers was adamant he had done enough to get the decision and agreed with Hugh Russell Jnr’s score of 98-93 in his favour, but these were overruled by Marcus McDonnell who had it 96-94 in favour of Hughes, while John Keane’s card read 97-93 to the visitor.
“Absolutely disgusted. I thought I nicked it,” said a disappointed Fryers after.
“I thought I won the first five, shaded the sixth, lost seven and eight, shaded nine and won 10 so I thought I won, but that’s boxing so what can you do?
“Nothing (from Hughes) was landing flush, no jabs or straight lefts. I was never hit with anything that troubled me and I thought I landed with the more damaging punches and was busier. To be honest, I’m a bit lost for words.”
In fairness, it was hard to agree with Fryers’ assessment as it was southpaw, Hughes who seemed to be doing the better work for the majority of the fight, popping out his sharp right jap and forcing the Belfast man to miss time and again before countering.
It was certainly close in the early stages, but the Yorkshireman – roared on by a his band of supporters that included Josh Warrington – just seemed to be more effective with his work and banked the early rounds before Fryers enjoyed a good third.
However, he was finding it difficult to land clean and when he did, Hughes always had an answer.
Fryers did take the fifth, snapping the head of Hughes back with crisp rights, but the visitor rallied and continued to dictate the pace, countering and evading Fryers’ attack until the final round when the home favourite’s effort proved too-little, too-late.
For Fryers (now 11-1), it’s back to the drawing board, but he says he will come back stronger and will look to see just where it went wrong on the night.
“I will need to sit down and talk to ‘Nugget’ (coach, Gerry Nugent) and see where I went wrong and where I went right,” he accepted.
“I will take a wee break because I had a hard eight-week training camp, so I need a rest.”
While Fryers’ title aspirations are on hold for now, James Tennyson’s are very much alive as he warmed up for his featherweight challenge to Ryan Walsh with a routing first round victory over Antonio Horvatic.
‘The Assassin’ took a little time to pin the Croatian down, but when he did, an assault on the ropes forced Horvatic down and the fight was over after 2:07 of action.
“I did what I had to. The British title is next, so I will move on to that,” he said after.
“It was activity anyway and got me out there, so I’m buzzing now (for the British title fight) and can’t wait for it.”
Paul Hylan Jnr was in a typically engrossing contest and again he prevailed on the referee’s scorecard after six all-action rounds against Jacek Wylezol to improve to 10-0.
There was also a points win for Fergal McCrory who bossed Peter Mellar for four rounds of their lightweight clash, while Joe Fitzpatrick took just 47 seconds to stop Rusland Berdimuradovs at lightweight and Tyrone McCullagh was another who maintained his perfect win and stoppage record with a victory in 1:43 against Antons Zacests at super-bantamweight.
