Gurung takes title in super, seesaw fight

Team Gurung celebrate after lifting 10st belt. Picture: Facebook

NEPAL and Nuneaton have a boxing champ after Minaaz Gurung lifted the Midlands super-lightweight belt in a coming of age battle.

On a superb Saturday show at Chase Leisure Centre, Cannock – and promoter Scott Murray should be congratulated for the quality of the card – Gurung halted Joe Underwood Hughes in six for the vacant title.

The Nottingham man rose almost immediately after being floored by a right in Gurung’s corner and was furious with referee Chris Dean’s intervention.

I felt Mr Dean got it spot on. Hughes had been dropped heavily by a left hook in the fifth and was under heavy pressure when the ball rang.

Gurung, taking part in only his sixth fight, felled Hughes again with his first solid shot of the next session. That showed brave Joe had still not recovered and with only 17 seconds of the round gone, he faced minutes of sustained punishment.

He played his part in a scintillating scheduled 10 rounder, however, a contest with the twists and turns that make for a thriller.

And I believed he was poised to stamp his authority on the fight before Minaaz came out guns blazing in the fifth. Bleeding from the nose, he caught Gurung cleanly with clusters of straight punches and seemed to be growing into the battle. Then the bomb dropped.

The new champ, having his first fight since November and pitched into his first championship distance contest, has rough edges to smooth, but possesses a real warrior spirit. What’s more, he loves a tear-up.

He worked Hughes’ long body in the first, shrugged off the more cultured shots that pierced his guard and kept driving forward.

The 23-year-old connected with a hard right in the second, although Hughes was now finding the range with rights and left hooks. With less than six minutes gone the bout was already bubbling close to boiling points.

I believed – wrongly – that Hughes was solving the puzzle before him. Sometimes turning southpaw, he stuck his tongue out in the third after clocking a hard punch, then fired back with combinations.

Minaaz didn’t fight with the same intensity in the fourth. He tried to box at distance – a tactic that played into Hughes’ hands.

Concerns he may have been already feeling the pace were quickly erased in a dramatic fifth. He started fast, hooked to the ribs, then detonated a left hook that sent Hughes sprawling. Joe was up at four for the standing count, but ended the round pinned against the ropes and under severe pressure.

The bell came to his rescue. It was a temporary reprieve.

That power-laden right at the start of the sixth convinced Mr Dean enough was enough. I agreed with him.

On social media, the new champ posted: “Nepal’s first, not last!”