CROWNING glory eluded the Pocklington Rocket Harry Matthews, whose title resolve foundered on Rocky resistance.

A nip and tuck, ten-round tussle between Matthews and opponent Rocky Cakir ended in a 96-94 verdict in favour of the Bristol-based Turk at York’s Energise Centre.

Instead of the 24-year-old Matthews capturing the vacant International Masters middleweight championship, the cobalt-blue belt was wrapped around Cakir’s midriff.

Effectively Doncaster referee Howard Foster had Cakir two rounds clear – my own verdict had the Turk one round to the good – a margin which Matthews and trainer Glenn Banks reckoned should have gone to the Pocklington Rocket.

But Cakir’s sustained aggression and having more of the command of the centre of the ring proved decisive.

Matthews enjoyed the better of the final third of the bout, but paid for a slow start and then frequently failed to assert his control with the cleaner shots.

After an initially cagey opening round Cakir took the second round buoyed by a brace of lusty right-handers.

The action sputtered rather than fizzed, though Matthews countered with a crisper fourth round characterised by two jarring jabs.

Cakir responded with a rousing run in which he was the more forceful. Though Matthews’ work was diligent and studied his authority was unconvincing as reflected by anguished yelps from his voluble supporters.

However, the eighth round was all Matthews. Two short left-hand jabs rocked the dome of the Turk as the Pocklington Rocket at last fired on all cylinders with a snappier delivery.

The invigorated crowd roared their encouragement and the “Harry Harry” chant assumed a confident tone. But the last two rounds hurtled by with Cakir continuing his solid defensive work so that Matthews was frustratingly unable to nail his man and provoke a York uprising of celebration.

Home comfort was confined to bracing displays from York’s two other fighters on the four-fight card.

Rookie Lee Stewart revelled in a strong professional debut.

Against a stubborn opponent in Dan Carr of Trowbridge, the 20-year-old Clifton combatant applied constant pressure ending in a stingingly effective jab.

Stewart won all of his six two-minute rounds of the lightweight showdown as superior punching speed held sway.

The only blemish was an untidy fourth round as Carr swarmed in to try and retrieve an already doomed plan, but Stewart rapidly recovered his poise to dominate and score from his heavy-scoring jab for an emphatic win.

The quickest and shortest action of the night was produced by Heworth’s have-a-go hit-man Matt Doyle, who stopped Dudley’s Martin Gordon in 24 seconds of the first round of their four three-minute round welterweight contest.

From the off Doyle tore into his crouching opponent so fast that before the crowd had settled Gordon was lying across the bottom rope counted out by the referee.

When Gordon got back to his corner after medical treatment he was angrily claimed he had slipped but referee Foster confirmed that he had been floored by a punch to the stomach.

Opening the bill, Leeds favourite Lee Murtagh, who acted as a second in Matthews’ corner in the main attraction, comfortably outfought Lincoln’s Ryan Clarke to gain a maximum points triumph in the super-middleweight contest.