Salam stunned as hot Fry turns up the heat

07 February 2008

DEFEAT was a stunning blow to Tony Salam, the hot Stoke Newington light-heavyweight prospect, at York Hall on Friday evening.

Stunned was the only word that could be used as the former ABA champion, unbeaten in seven fights as a professional, sat on a chair in his dressing room afterwards, unable to take in that he had not only been beaten, but knocked out!

Opponent Courtney Fry, a man with a glittering amateur career, but largely inactive in recent years as a pro, had put his career back on track with this win.

Fry, despite his lack of action, was ranked fifth going into this fight. Salam, relatively inexperienced in comparison, was two places further back in seventh place.

Now Fry, the former Commonwealth Games gold medallist and three times ABA champion, will look to get a crack at the British title, held by Portsmouth's Tony Oakey with a ninth round stoppage of Enfield's Peter Haymer, on the same show.

Tony Salam forced the pace from the off in his fight with Fry, using his southpaw jab to good effect and catch his opponent early with right hooks.

Fry, much the taller of the two, started to make his longer reach tell from the second round. Salam began to miss a lot as a result, but the opening four rounds were very equal, observers at ringside being split as to who was ahead.

Round five proved the round of the fight. Both boxers stood head to toe and exchanged hooks to head and body, a rousing rally that had the York Hall fans on their feet.

Salam seemed to be landing the cleaner shots and going into the fateful sixth looked to be in front.

But with both boxers tiring after their herculian efforts, Salam allowed himself to be caught with a left hook followed by a heavy right hook to the side of the Hackney boxer's head that dropped him to the canvas.

It was only the second time he had been down and the other occasion in his win over Orvill Mackenzie was passed off as a slip.

This time the only slip was walking into the punch and referee Marcus McDonnell counted out the Stoke Newington starlet in one minute seven seconds of round six.

Salam's handlers with Maloney Promotions say their man will come back stronger for the unhappy experience.

On the undercard, there were wins for heavyweight John McDermott over Russian Daniel Peret on points, Manchester's Mark Thompson impressively stopped Darren Gethin in two rounds, while women's boxer Laura Saperstein, made it two from two by oupointing Alena Varchenko from the Ukraine.