Bowen vs McCorry results: Sam Bowen stops Jordan McCorry, retains British title

Sam Bowen retained his British 130-pound title today in Leicester, stopping Scotland’s Jordan McCorry in the ninth round of their main event fight.

Bowen (15-0, 11 KO) met some early resistance from the underdog McCorry (17-5-1, 4 KO), but took over the fight as the rounds went on, with his superior power making a clear difference against the challenger.

The 26-year-old Bowen hurt McCorry in the sixth round, and then McCorry lost a point for going low, though he did fight really hard trying to get back into the round and the fight. McCorry lost another point for the same infraction in the seventh round, putting him in what was surely a massive hole on the cards.

Bowen hurt McCorry, 28, again early in the ninth round, and saw the opening to go for the finish. With McCorry reeling, Bowen just hammered away at the body and head, and with McCorry not fighting back and taking too much punishment, the referee stepped in to call a halt to the fight at 0:33 of round nine.

It’s a solid win for McCorry, who is still something of a work in progress but does look the class of the domestic scene at super featherweight for the time being. There shouldn’t be any great rush to take him further up in level, as there are improvements to be made, but he’s doing his job well thus far.

Heavyweight prospect Nathan Gorman remained unbeaten, topping American veteran Kevin Johnson, who came in on very short notice, on a shutout referee’s score of 100-90.

It wound up your typical Johnson (34-13-1, 18 KO) fight. He hung around in the ring, but that’s really all he did, using his shoulder roll, riding a lot of shots, and going the distance in a stink-out performance where he didn’t put any honest effort toward winning a round, let alone the fight.

Gorman (16-0, 11 KO) has actual potential, and at 22 he’s got a long time to build. There is value to giving young fighters rounds, of course, but Johnson doesn’t give valuable rounds at this point, he just gives rounds. It’s glorified sparring.

Other results:

• Sam Maxwell TKO-9 Sabri Sediri. A stunning finish to keep Maxwell (11-0, 9 KO) unbeaten, and give him a minor WBO belt at 140 pounds. Maxwell was down in the first and second rounds, but did claw his way back into things. But France’s Sediri (10-1-1, 5 KO) had big confidence late, and was looking for a big punch to finish, probably smartly, not looking to send things to the cards on the road. (BT Sport reported that Maxwell was up on two cards.) But then as Sediri threw, Maxwell crushed him with a clean right hand, putting Sediri flat on his back. Sediri got up, but the referee waved him off with 14 seconds left in the fight. It wasn’t any home cooking; Sediri was out on his feet and in no condition to continue. A thrilling bit of drama to finish a compelling fight.
• CJ Challenger PTS-10 Kyle Haywood (97-95). A competitive, entertaining 154-pound fight, which gives Challenger (10-0, 2 KO) the Midlands Area title, which was vacant coming in. Haywood loses his “0,” dropping to 8-1 (1 KO).