[kenyan_cheena]

Coventry Observer

TUESDAY 1 AUGUST 2006

LORD THRILLS HOMETOWN FANS
WITH WIN OVER SIBSON

Story by James Hurd

Coventry middleweight Ian Lord staged a late rally to take a unanimous decision win over Leicester's Tony Sibson last night at a bursting-at-the-seams Leofric Hotel. The bout was the headline attraction on an International Boxing League fight card that featured the quarter-finals of the organisation's Inter-Continental Middleweight Championship tournament, Lord earning a semi-final berth with his gutsy win. Both men had achieved admirable, unexpected victories in their stage one bouts and both were heavily supported, although Lord had a slight edge in that category. Lord was behind the pace early on as, after an ineffective 1st he was deducted a point in the 2nd for a low blow.

The 11th-seeded southpaw controlled rounds three and four and appeared to be on his way to victory. He was beating Sibson to the punch, outworking him and inflicting some nasty damage, including some serious swelling under his right eye. But Sibson wasn't going to go down without a fight and he fired off a worrying retort in the 5th before winning round six quite convincingly. Lord knew he had to finish strongly to secure a victory and that's exactly what he did. He upped his aggression and dominated the final two rounds, putting it beyond doubt when he sent Sibson to the canvas moments before the final bell. The knockdown brought a deafening cheer from the crowd. The cards each had identical scores of 76-74 in Lord's favour, the 18 year-old receiving a huge ovation when his victory was confirmed.

Lord outlanded Sibson 274-127 but obviously those numbers don't indicate what a competitive fight it was. Lord is now 9-0(5) and will take on Germany's Franz Szuzina in the semis. Szuzina just made it through after his bout against Tom Bogs finished as a draw. There'll be at least one Englishman in the tournament final because the other semi pits London's Maurice Hope against Leamington Spa native Randy Turpin. Hope booked his place in the final four with an unconvincing effort in his fight with the Frenchman Robert Villemain. He struggled for consistency throughout the match and was probably lucky it ended as a draw. Turpin was far more impressive in scoring a 5th round knockout of Korea's Jae-Do Yuh. After an evenly-fought opening four rounds Turpin blew his man away with two knockdowns in the 5th, Yuh failing to beat the count after the second, the bout ending at the 2:35 mark. Turpin is now 11-0(9) and based on what he's shown in his opening two tournament bouts must be a favourite to become the inaugural IBL Inter-Continental Middleweight Champion.

(#7) Szuzina D8 (#15) Bogs
(#1) Hope D8 (#9) Villemain
(#4) Turpin KO5 (#5) Yuh
(#11) Lord UD8 (#14) Sibson

Semi-finals

(#7) Franz Szuzina (9-1-1(6)) vs (#11) Ian Lord (9-0(5))
(#1) Maurice Hope (13-0-2(9)) vs (#4) Randy Turpin (11-0(9))