‘King’ Arthur (17-0, 12 KOs) defended his commonwealth belt for the very first time on Friday 31st July. The match took off with Arthur throwing calculated jabs at his opponent, and the challenger trying his best to land some shots while staying busy on the front foot.
Arthur was quick on his feet most of the starting rounds, jabbing at Spelman who was attacking in bursts after chasing him down across the cage.
He maintained the pace into the second round, throwing heavy ramrod jabs and causing serious swelling across Spelman’s eye. Spelman managed to pin down Arthur on the ropes in the third round, to get some punches in, but Arthur was calm, relaxed, and didn’t flinch for a second.
By the sixth round, Spelman was exhausting too much energy in his attempts to pin down Arthur. His efforts were commendable but not as effective. This gave Arthur enough confidence to showboat. He worked up his attacking rate, taking advantage of Spelman’s depleted state, landing a great head-body combination with speed to inflict more damage. Arthur kept his opponent on his feet, backing that up with a master class of the back footwork.
The Scunthorpe champ wasn’t ready to back down anytime soon, despite his face showing serious effects from the fight. The championship rounds saw more of the same relaxed dominance from Arthur as he safely made his way to the final bell, with Spelman continuing to come forward until the bitter end.
The result was obvious, but the scorecards showed an appreciation for Spelman’s tremendous efforts.
Mark Lyson scored 116-112, John Latham tallied 116-113 and Terry O’Connor had it 119-109.
