Harty lets both fists fly in winning debut

Jimmy Harty spears Pollard with a jab. Picture: Manjit Narotra/BCB

JIMMY Harty – by day a roofer – can be forgiven a night on the tiles after romping to his first professional victory.

On BCB’s Friday night show at the Hangar, Wolverhampton, Harty set a break-neck pace and pumped out punches near continuously to gain shut-out points victory over Jake Pollard.

In a previous interview, Jimmy listed  work-rate and fitness as his main assets. That appears to be the case.

Bradford’s Pollard, a veteran of over 90 bouts, was never in trouble, kept a tight guard but didn’t throw nearly enough back to rain on Harty’s parade. He did, however, make the 24-year-old super-bantam work hard for his win.

Harty, from Wolverhampton and cheered on by 100 noisy fans, certainly put a shift in.

“I was pleased with my performance,” he said afterwards. “I’ve been looking forward to it for a long time. I let my hands go.”

He did that.

He added: “It was my debut and there were nerves and excitement – there are always going to be. To be honest, I prefer the pace of the longer (pro) rounds because of the stuff I do in the gym. Hopefully, I’ll be out again in two or three months time.”

I discovered something about tanned Harty (8st 13lbs) on Friday – he’s a dead ringer for former British middleweight champ Felix Cash.

After a fairly limited 16 bout amateur career, Harty is very much a work in progress and there are aspects to his game that need attention.

I felt Jimmy’s defence looked a little leaky and his work a little rushed. But he appears to possess a fine engine and showed a fans-friendly style.

Hands low, Harty started as he meant to go on by constantly firing straight shots. He grew in stature, throwing lefts to the body in the fourth and at last unleashing uppercuts. Pollard (8st 11lbs) deflected most of the flak coming his way and pressed forward without pulling the trigger.