MTK Global: Michael McKinson vs. Martin Harkin & Jay Harris vs. Marcel Braithwaite RBR

Official cards:

Phil Edwards 98-93
Howard Foster 97-93
John Latham 98-92

UD for Harris

 

...okay, I know I said I wouldn't call robbery, but 98-92??

Even the 97-93 is a stretch.

Oh well, there are probably a couple dozen people at most watching this card. Jay will be in a title opportunity next year and none will be the wiser that he should've lost to a Liverpudlian novice here.

 

"Can't say I boxed my best, if we're being honest. Didn't come out fresh and got punished for it. The scorecards were quite wide, but twas a good fight...credit to Marcel, he done a good job"

Refreshing to see a figher being that real, props to Harris.

 

Michael McKinson vs. Martin Harkin, 10 rounds @ welterweight

 

Someone's 0 has got to go.

 

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Now that's a big lad! A thousand pounds over the welter limit, few too many fry-ups?

 

10-8 McKinson, but the commentators feel it was a dodgy KD ruling. Sort of a pummeling combined with a push, judgment call.

 

More legitimate flash knockdown (at least this one is clearly the result of a punch) by McKinson to start round two. Harkin in a deep hole already, without this having really begun to heat up yet.

The gangly Harkin looking quite amateurish lunging after McKinson, not boxing tall whatsoever, being turned and dusted with right jabs, and occasionally cracked with straight or looping lead lefts.

10-8, 20-16 McKinson

 

Replay confirms the second round KD was clean, but also clearly the result of Harkin being squared up inside McKinson's legs with their opposite southpaw and orthodox stances - along with Harkin's height advantage and his being the artless aggressor - leaving them awkwardly arranged.

 

McKinson boxing very cleverly, unrushed, just impaling Harkin with counter right jabs and teleporting around the ring, loading up on lefts now and then.

10-9, 30-25 McKinson

 

Imagine already needing a KO to win after three rounds of a 10-rounder.

 

Barry Jones was talking up Harkin as some kind of secret weapon puncher despite having just 5 kayos in 13 bouts (and tbf, a lot of his record is littered with the likes of double-tough journeyman Willy Warburton) - but if he isn't packing absolute dynamite he's losing this. And even that's only half the battle; he'd need to land the big shot, and McKinson just seems too classy for him. Very calm and patient stuff from McKinson, dropping his arms, bending his front right knee, and then drawing the pail up the well and jabbing the oncoming Harkin in the face and propelling himself outside at random angles without taking a receipt.

10-9 McKinson

40-34 McKinson

 

Harkin hurt with a body shot and clubbing left on the head, and goes down on all fours in a daze. He beats the count but the clock has over 90 seconds to give and he's unsteady. McKinson jumps in with a right hook in midair, slightly overconfident and scores but eats a desperate Harkin left hook. Nice action here, momentarily, but then it settles into a morass of Harkin missing jabs over the bent back of McKinson, who pieces up the body with light flicks of his wrist and misses no-look overhands while remaining slouched and gazing at his toes.

10-8 McKinson

50-42 McKinson

 

McKinson playing pattycake now, neutralizing Harkin's left jab by greeting it with his right. McKinson able to blind Harkin with a slapping right hook raked across his eyes, then buries a solid roundhouose left into the opposite temple. Harkin working against his own natural advantages, roping out chunky disjointed combos of what are probably meant to be straight punches, sailing past the head and shoulders as McKinson twists and ducks in to slap the body. Best that Harkin can manage is a stray incidental uppercut here and there in the pocket.

10-9 McKinson

60-51 McKinson

 

Fearon forgot to score the KD in the 5th and has it 60-52 McKinson.