Malone oozes class in halting brave Dan

Huey Malone…all smiles after Thursday’s Excelsior victory

I BUMPED into Dan “The Monk” Booth – sporting the marks of battle – outside a pizza parlour hours after he’d been cut down with diamond-tipped precision by Huey Malone.

Coventry prospect Malone had carved open the rugged Manchester welter with the clinical procession of a staff member slicing up a 12 inch Margherita at the fast food restaurant Booth was visiting.

At the Excelsior Club, Cannock, on Thursday night, 25-year-old Malone connected with sharp, spiteful punch after sharp, spiteful punch until Booth – his spirit still willing, his body weak from the incessant punishment – could take no more.

Referee Peter McCormack’s intervention at two minutes 58 seconds of the fourth of a scheduled six was immaculately timed. Booth (10st 11lbs) hadn’t been badly hurt but was on the brink of being badly hurt.

Dan, shifting from one foot to the other in an excited pavement dance, admitted: “He was too sharp.

“Four rounds, I think I could do it, six was too much.” By “do it” he means survive the distance.

Booth’s features, chipped by a 24 bout career against some of the brightest prospects in the country, contorted into a broad grin. “But you know me,” he said, holding one fist to his chin as if answering an imaginary call, “when the phone rings…”

He’ll answer the call to fight.

Professional boxing is like an iceberg. The millions who tune-in to televised arena shows only see the glinting tip. They are unaware of the darkened mass hidden below the waves: the true body of boxing where tomorrow’s champions are produced. Those fighters have to struggle to reach the surface.

Booth is part of that struggle. He tests the prospects, always comes to scrap, never comes to merely survive.

And that proved his undoing against tall Malone (10st 4lbs) who has blinding speed and an uncanny radar for finding range. He attempted to draw Huey into a dog fight and got bitten.

Malone, a truly outstanding international amateur, was labelled “something special” when turning pro. On Thursday night he looked the part.

He began sharply, turning rights to the body into uppercuts, and cranked up the pressure with each passing minute.

Booth tried to push him back in the third, only to be raked by bodyshots. By then, Malone’s fists were almost a blur as he slung combinations non-stop.

The punches – uppercuts and hooks – kept coming in the fourth until Booth’s body sagged. Mr McCormack’s intervention saved him for another day.

“I was just buzzing to get out,” Malone, now unbeaten in three, said. “He was tough and there’s a lot I can take from the fight. I knew he couldn’t keep taking those combinations.

“Right now, all I want is to say active.”

Coventry is enjoying a pro boxing boom, with a pack of talented young boxers emerging as title hopes.

Malone may soon be one of the pack leaders.