8:40am Saturday 27th February 2010
By Tony Kelly
Clifton king of the amateur ring Lee Stewart returned to the winning track in emphatic fashion.
The 19-year-old powered to a unanimous points verdict over North-Easterner Dwayne Douglas, from the Gus Robinson Amateur Boxing Club, at Harehills Working Men’s Club in Leeds.
It was the first bout for Stewart since he lost in controversial manner in the semi-finals of the National Amateur Boxing Championships last autumn.
Stepping up to light-welterweight, Stewart was giving weight, reach and height advantage to his opponent, but in the opening two rounds the Clifton ace’s fast working combinations held sway.
In the third and final round Stewart momentarily took his foot off the pedal and was caught by two strong punches from Robinson.
Stewart countered with yet more sharp work forcing Robinson to be given a standing count by the referee.
At the bell, the referee confirmed a unanimous triumph for Stewart, who was watched by a body of 50 fight fans from York.
Stewart’s sharpness has been boosted by assistance from York’s oldest current professional, 34-year-old Graham Fearn, who has been honing his preparations for his ninth professional fight against serving soldier Amir Unsworth at the Doncaster Dome on March 5.
Fearn has been training at Leeds, where he has been boosted by a range of sparring partners from national amateur champions to professional middleweights.
Such has been the iron-core conditioning of Fearn that he is pictured bang on the ten stone limit that he was at 12 years ago when he won the national light-welterweight amateur title.
Tickets for Fearn’s fight on the Carl Greaves promotion are available at £25 a ticket by phoning Fearn on 07923 670919.
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