Taking to Bolton on Friday 21st, ‘King’ Lyndon Arthur (24-2) would put on a lacklustre coronation ceremony for the WBA Inter-Continental Light-Heavyweight title, taking home a split-decision win against Sheffield’s Liam Cameron (23-6).
The light-heavyweight world challenger was set to rebound in style, after losing a shut-out decision to WBA king Dmitrii Bivol (23-0) on the Riyadh Season ‘Day of Reckoning’ card. Billed as ‘Return of the King’, many predicted an easy night for the light-heavyweight royal, with his opponent having taken a long absence from the ring and fighting in a different weight division to his best years.
However, Cameron showed grit, constantly applying pressure from the front-foot; effectively hounding the more disciplined warrior. Power was the name-of-the-game for Cameron, a strategy that, whilst having some degree of success, would not ultimately work out in a bout against the more-seasoned Arthur.
Despite describing his performance as ‘sub-par’ at ringside, the win has opened up massive opportunities; it is speculated that the Mancunian will next share the ring with London lad Dan Azeez (20-1-1), who is coming off his own disappointment.
Elsewhere, Wasserman’s touted featherweight prospect Tom Welland (5-0) put on a supreme display against Argentinian Alejandro Farias (3-3), who put it on Welland from the opening bell. However, Welland was swift in his punches, yet, they would never lose their power. Dropping Farias in the second, Welland also proved that he could be drawn into exchanges, if need be.
The extremely dangerous Kazakh super-featherweight Sultan Zaurbek (18-0) created a stir with a blisteringly impressive first round stoppage of Roman Ruben Reynoso (22-5-2). Channel 5 did a disservice to the strong and skillful warrior by neglecting him from their television broadcast, as Zaurbek proved that he deserves to be mixing in the top-ten, as viewers on DAZN can agree with.
Perhaps a name like Robson Conceicao (18-2-1) or a Zelfa Barrett (31-2) could lie in the promising fighter’s future.
Overall, whilst not as exciting as the previous week’s Wasserman outing, Arthur was able to rebound in a way that proved challenging and some major prospects got to show their levels.
