FORMER British featherweight champion Dazzo Williams was a special guest at Hereford Boxing Academy’s show at the Three Counties Hotel last weekend.

Williams fought out of the city and filled the city’s Leisure Centre for his British-title defences against Roy Rutherford and John Simpson in 2004.

Williams went on to set up Wye ABC – now South Wye ABC – and was back in Hereford to hand out the Boxer of the Night award to another featherweight after a good night’s boxing

Tom Beech took home the trophy after unanimously outpointing Ian Hawkins-Brown (Black Country Boxing).

Master of Ceremonies Vernon Ray insisted the sell-out crowd showed their appreciation for a fight that gave them “non-stop action” and hailed 33 year-old Beech for giving “100 per cent, as always.”

Hawkins-Brown knew what was coming having been outpointed by Beech earlier this season in Bromyard, but the result was the same.

Beech jumped on him and outworked him.

He got on Hawkins-Brown’s chest at the opening bell and stayed there until the end.

The Black Country corner shouted: “Move,” but wherever Hawkins-Brown went, he found Beech in front of him churning out clusters of hooks and uppercuts.

Club-mate Charlie Waybourne had his hands full with the strong and aggressive Karlo Wallace (Black Country) and claimed a desperately tight split verdict, his third straight win.

Wallace was given a public warning in the second for dangerous head work.

There weren’t many clean punches landed in the match between schoolboys Freddie Jones (Hereford Boxing Academy) and Parghat Singh Panesar (Leamington Community Boxing) and though he appeared to show the better technique, Jones lost a split decision.

Zak Chamberlain bloodied Jack Phelan’s (Rhyl) nose in a good junior bout, but didn’t land enough clean punches to avoid a points defeat and teenager Tyler Reeks didn’t need the judges, to the delight of the noisy fans from Bromyard.

Louis McGrath (Leominster) had won inside a round on his club’s show seven days earlier and settled quicker, but there was a lot of weight behind Reeks’s punches. The referee waved it off in the second after he had given McGrath a second count.

Louie Simon was another Bromyard boxer in action, losing narrowly to Usman Ahmed (Bartlett Green).