Perfect learning fight for unbeaten Oscar

Oscar McCracken and dad Spencer after the whitewash victory

PROUD journeyman Stefan Vincent deserves praise for providing Birmingham’s popular Oscar McCracken with the perfect learning fight.

At Cannock’s Premier Suite yesterday (Sunday), Vincent always looked to fight back, made the 26-year-old work and played his part in an absorbing four rounder.

Vincent, from Dorset, showed more spite than I’ve seen him display in West Midlands rings. The 34-year-old fought with such vigour in the final session, I felt he deserved at least a share of the round.

Referee Chris Dean disagreed, giving McCracken a 40-36 whitewash.

That’s win number four for Oscar, the only lawyer in the professional ranks – and his fans, holding aloft an oversized banner, celebrated as if a British title had just been bagged.

In truth, McCracken, part of a very famous boxing family, is a work in progress. That progress has been helped by Vincent who came to give it a go.

“We knew he would,” McCracken’s dad and manager Spencer Snr said. “That’s why we got him. I knew he’d throw back.

“Oscar will be better over six rounds because at the moment it feels like a bit of a sprint. Listen, he’s a new pro and there are things to work on, like getting in there quicker and feinting before you get there so they can’t hold you.”

McCracken (10st 9lbs) was compact and disciplined behind a sharp jab and landed an eye-catching left hook counter in the dying embers of the first.

Vincent’s tenacity meant Oscar had to stay focused and maintain a high workrate. “De La Lawyer” was bundled to the ropes in the second but made the man known as “The Wasp” pay with a right hand.

Oscar put his foot on the pedal in the third before Vincent (10st 8lbs) rallied down the stretch, winging punches from both hands in a valiant last stand.

He forced McCracken back, but suffered the payback of precise counters.