It wasn't a particularly exciting Prizefighter today at York Hall, but the tournament final was bizarrely memorable if nothing else. After hurting Yassine El Maachi in the first round, a sharp-looking Junior Witter appeared to be floored from an El Maachi right hand, only to have it ruled a slip by the referee. In the second round, the sloppy but brazen "action" continued, with both awkward fighters sort of mirroring one another.
Then in the third and final round of the bout. El Maachi played matador, side stepping Witter and sending him flying to the arena floor. Witter, to his credit, simply dusted himself off and went right back to work, and the two threw wild shots at one another to close the bout.
In the end, it was El Maachi who came away with a majority decision win on scores of 29-28, 29-28 and 29-29, winning the 19th edition of Prizefighter, and improving his record to 17-4 (5 KO). Witter, now 37 and looking to get his career back on track, is 39-5-2 (22 KO) after his three fights today.
Full fight-by-fight results after the jump.
Quarterfinals
- Kevin McIntyre UD-3 John Wayne Hibbert: Scores were a correct 29-28 across the board, as the Scottish veteran took the first two rounds by outboxing and out-thinking the untested Hibbert, and basically gave away the third. Hibbert gave it his best shot in the final round but it wasn't enough. Hibbert is now 7-1 (4 KO).
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Junior Witter UD-3 Nathan Graham: Scores were 30-28, 30-28 and 29-28. Witter is still the same old Witter except he's not as quick as he used to be. Crowd wasn't pleased with Witter, and when he was told so after the fight in his interview, his response was a very Junior Witter-like, "Tough." I laughed. Graham is now 11-3 (5 KO).
- Colin Lynes UD-3 Bobby Gladman: Easy work for Lynes, who shook Gladman in the first round and cruised after that. Gladman is now 7-1-1 (0 KO).
- Yassine El Maachi UD-3 Peter McDonagh: Fairly easy work for El Maachi, too, who ended the first round with another predictable result. McDonagh is now 16-2 (2 KO).
Semifinals
- Junior Witter UD-3 Kevin McIntyre: Witter largely dominated this one, dropping McIntyre on a body shot and just looking much stronger, faster, and better than McIntyre.
- Yassine El Maachi SD-3 Colin Lynes: Scores were 29-28 twice for El Maachi, and 30-28 for Lynes. I had it 2-1 for Lynes, but it was very close and it was no disgrace or anything. Fight was sloppy and probably would have been as close over 12 rounds as it was over three.