Promising Ray Musson (69.1kg) in only his second professional contest faced a daunting task when he squared off against Aussie, Paz Viejo (69.7kg) at the ABA Stadium on Thursday April 24. Paz a veteran of 33 licensed bouts and countless tent fights, completely bamboozled the young Musson in the early rounds incorporating many of the old boxing booth techniques, including holding his right hand above his head, then throwing a left uppercut or varying the routine by bringing the right down on top of Musson’s head. Greatly annoyed by these tactics Musson started throwing bombs but Paz’s crazy tactics had him completely flummoxed.
By the third round Musson stopped trying to knock Viejo out and settled down to outbox the Mt Isa born scrapper. The fifth saw Musson take the fight to the fast tiring Paz but he still couldn’t catch him with a knockout blow. In the sixth and final round after a nasty head clash left a cut over Paz’s left eye, the two went toe-to-toe for the entire three minutes. Musson took the narrowest of decisions.
Rhys King (82.7kg), another former top amateur, also had problems working out the style of kickboxing convert Shaun Salisbury (84.2kg). Salisbury bled profusely from the nose in the second round and referee Mardi Manuela had the ring doctor check to see if it wasn’t broken.
King continued to attack the body in the third round and halfway through the fourth the ref had seen enough and called it off to save a brave Sainsbury from further punishment.
Record collector’s note that this was Ray Musson’s second professional fight. He previously knocked out somebody called Lee Hunter in 57s of the first round at the Active Zone, North Harbour on April 4th in a charity program featuring Police vs. Navy.
Daniel McKinnon continued a steady and sensible career course with a 12-round points win over kickboxing champion Shane “Choppa” Chapman on May 3rd, reports Jim Mahoney. Chapman, who is no slouch as a boxer, lost 117-110, 117-110 and 114-113 respectively on the three judges cards.
The WBO Oriental-Pacific title bout at the Headhunter’s Motorcycle Club featured clean, fast, well executed shots and plenty of drama. Chapman was down in the sixth and cut late in the fight but never looked completely out of contention. Knowing he was behind on points, he came out firing bombs in the final round but McKinnon weathered the storm to take a well earned points victory.
On the undercard an obviously ring-rusty and unfit Sean Sullivan stumbled his way to a three-round points loss to Wayne Orbell. No weights were announced at ringside but Orbell told me he weighed 87kg and McKinnon said he came in at 75.8kg
