[kenyan_cheena]

NOTTINGHAM POST

Thursday 22 June 2006

"OUR BOY" CHARLIE
PASSES FIRST IBL TEST

Story by Michael Jenkins

Nottingham featherweight Charlie Beniston made a fantastic start to his time in the International Boxing League last night, scoring a majority decision win over the tough, undefeated South African Welcome Ncita in stage one of the Inter-Continental Championship tournament at Milan's Agora Stadium (59-55, 57-57, 58-56). Fighting in the evening's fourth contest, 12th-seeded Beniston was up against the biggest challenge of his brief professional career and in the opinion of ringside observers the 19 year-old passed with flying colours. He signalled his intentions early when he snapped Ncita's head back with a jolting uppercut just ten seconds into the opening round. A flush right cross staggered the South African a minute later and a stinging left hook to the ribs had him grimacing in pain just before the two minute mark.

Ncita made it a much more even fight the rest of the way, with rounds two to five all close and competitive. Both men were showing not just fantastic hand speed but also outstanding defenses with numerous punches dodged, slipped or parried throughout. Beniston's ability to evade Ncita's blows had some at ringside gasping in awe. This made it difficult to know which way the judges would go with their verdict but Beniston dominated the final round against a tiring Ncita to put the result beyond doubt. He'd cut Ncita outside the left eyebrow early in the 5th and the fight was almost stopped due to the severity of it early in the 6th. Beniston landed 111 of 479 punches (23.2%), Ncita 96 of 675 (14.2%). Beniston remains undefeated at 6-0(3), Ncita suffering his first defeat and falling to 7-1(4).

Following an impressive but short stay in the amateur ranks Beniston turned pro this past October, winning his first five fights through to April. He had openly expressed his ambition to dethrone Jim Driscoll as the featherweight division's champion but not long after his last bout on April 16 he was approached by the IBL with an offer to fight under its banner. Despite his words on Driscoll (who turned down the IBL), Beniston signed a contract with the new organisation. When asked to explain his change of heart Beniston had pointed to the uncertainty surrounding the sport, claiming that a bout against Driscoll would always remain a possibility "down the track". Beniston is one of a number of promising young fighters in the IBL's ranks and it will be interesting to see how far he goes in the tournament. His next opponent is another African fighter in 13th-seeded Ghana native Joe Tetteh. He joined Beniston in achieving an upset win by taking a razor-thin split decision verdict against Japanese 4th seed Kazuyoshi Omura in the very next bout on the card.

In the evening's main event #1 seed Loris Stecca put on a pleasing performance for his fellow countrymen in defeating the Filipino Rolly Santiago by a comfortable unanimous decision (59-55, 58-55, 59-55). After a willing start Santiago was floored two minutes into the 1st and it seemed to take a lot of the steam out of him as he struggled to get himself into the fight from that point on. Blackpool's Ronnie Clayton was on fire in the evening's co-feature, destroying the Korean Dong-Kyun Yum inside of two rounds to improve to 9-0-1(7). Clayton is another young man British fight fans should keep an eye on. With the very real possibility of an all-English final in the middleweight division's Inter-Continental tournament it would be fantastic to also see one in the featherweight division between Clayton and Beniston.