Northampton fighters shine as professional boxing returns to The Deco

The show was the first professional event held in the town since before the Covid-19 pandemic, and a big crowd at the Abington Square venue were treated a cracking afternoon of entertainment.

There was a trio of boxers taking part from the Harlestone Road-based Team Shoe-Box gym, as well as Far Cotton lad Carl Fail, and they all secured victories.

The three Team Shoe-Box fighters were all making their professional debuts, with Ryan Conway taking centre stage just a matter of hours after his older brother Kieron had beaten JJ Metcalf in a high-profile super welterweight clash at the M&S Bank Arena in Liverpool.

Kieron had travelled home from Liverpool, and was at The Deco on Sunday to cheer on his brother and Shoe-Box stable-mates.

Super featherweight Ryan took on a tough opponent in Ukrainian Stanislav Bilohurov over four rounds.

Southpaw Bilohurov was a highly-rated amateur and proved a very stern debut test for Conway, but the 24-year-old from Northampton did superbly to claim a points verdict from referee Kevin Parker.

Also making their debuts from Shoe-Box were super lightweight Ben Vaughan and Dempsey Madden.

Vaughan claimed a points win over Ezequiel Gregores who is based in Spain but hails from Argentina, over four rounds, and it was a similar story for Madden.

The 30-year-old got the better of veteran campaigner Kevin McCauley in their middleweight showdown.

Fail impressed as he clinched a fourth-round knockout win over Yorkshireman Jake Bray, and he can now boast a 100 per cent professional record from his three fights.

The other fights on the bill saw Jordan Flynn see off Lee Connelly on points over six rounds, while Ryan Robinson claimed a TKO win over Tim Ventrella.

Light heavyweight Robinson is the nephew of former world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.