Spartans Gym fighter shows pro class (From Thurrock Gazette)

Matt McCarthy delights 200 fans at York Hall

11:00am Thursday 27th September 2012 in Sport

BOXING: THURROCK’S Matt McCarthy showed his 200 travelling fans that he has super skills in the fight game when he won his latest bout at the York Hall on Sunday afternoon.

The 66kg borough fighter – who trains under Mark Bates at Stanford’s Spartans Gym – won his second pro fight when his clash with Slovakian Jules Raphael was stopped in the penultimate third round, writes Frazer Clark.

The former Chadwell ABC amateur, who turned pro earlier this year, dominated the bout against journeyman Raphael who had 44 fights to his name.

Bates said he was delighted with the borough fighter’s display.

“Matt had been matched with other people, but they dropped out and even Jack Clay, who he was supposed to fight, backed out too.”

“We looked around for another fighter and Jules Raphael came up. He’s a journeyman fighter – durable but beatable. So we decided to take a risk and take the match.”

The bout started with plenty of fury, and McCarthy’s corner were concerned about the use of their fighter’s rival’s head and warned their man to keep his distance in the second.

“Matt did what he was told and stayed out of trouble. Matt caught him with left hooks to the body and that really took it out of him. “Matt was in control for the second part of the fight.

“There were about 200 Thurrock people at the York Hall supporting Matt and they lifted the roof.

“Matt’s a neat boxer and aggressive with a powerful punch. “He won this and I now think that he’s ready to think about moving up from four round fights to six rounders.”

Bates said that McCarthy’s corner would let the fighter have a week off before starting again and this time the corner would be looking to match him with somebody like Bognor Regis fighter Liam Griffiths who is known to be a capable lad.

Bates said: “We have not made the match yet, but I’d love to see the two of them fighting at the beginning of December.”

For more see Friday's THURROCK GAZETTE