Pearce finishes broken but not beaten

Stourbridge's Steven Pearce today admitted it's 'no pain, no gain' after he boxed on with a broken hand to the finish at Walsall Town Hall.

Pearce cracked a bone in his right hand on Friday night come the fourth of his six-round tussle with Billy Smith and the agony showed when he returned to his corner at the end of the session.

Trainer Shaun Cooper threatened to pull him out until Pearce talked him out of it but the pain shot down to the fighter's leg making him hobble, having already switched to southpaw when injury hit.

'Fierce Pearce' soldiered on until the finish to record an arguably-generous 60-56 decision against the spirited Smith, but any win was a reward from a fight he could have been retired from.

He said: "I would rather have been knocked out than pulled out, I even tried to hide the injury from my corner at first.

"I just had to bite down on my gum shield, take his punches on the inside, be a warrior and pull off the win."

Injury also befell the away corner as Stafford's Grant Cunningham was left disappointed his middleweight contest with Jamie Boness never got going.

Cunningham look focussed and Boness' wouldn't look into his eyes as they met to start the contest but the visiting opponent didn't appear unsettled when the bell went.

Boness used height advantage to fend off Cunningham with a long jab but the fight was over at the end of the first round.

As referee Robert Chalmers checked the corner, Boness had suffered pulled tendons in his left hand and couldn't move most of his fingers, so retired in his corner.

Conceding defeat came when he was ahead but Cunningham, at such an early stage, insisted that had always been the plan.

He said: "I gave him the first round, I wanted to see what he had and I have always done it. In the second round, I was going to come out guns blazing.

"I hit him with one stiff jab and he nearly went through the ropes, he was going to get more of the same as the fight went on.

"It's disappointing and I don't class it as a win but what can you do?"

Fight of the night went to Dudley's Dean Anderson and the bill opener with Harvey Hemsley, an exciting four-round brawl at featherweight.

Anderson will ship one to take one and battered Hensley with hooks to the head and body, picking stiff shots whenever they were separated although it was never at less than close quarters.

Hemsley smothered his work come the third round and showed his mettle by not getting off Anderson, who could only connect cleanly in flashes but did enough to win on points, by 39-37.

Brierley Hill's Kyle Spencer looked great in his light middleweight four-rounder against Trowbridge debutant Matthew Vaughan.

Vaughan barely looked as if he was going to last past the first couple of rounds as he peppered the new-boy with a left hook, then a left and right that made his knees wobble.

A couple of stiff jabs with the right hand rocked Vaughan's head back and forth before he elected to move in closer and out of the road of Spencer's scything shots.

Another hammer with a left bruised Vaughan's right eye before Spencer was caught clean once with a looping right hook that Spencer danced out of to take a points shut out, by 40-36.

West Bromwich's Adam Corbett came a cropper in the other bout on the night as the light heavyweight slipped up against 'The One Man Riot' Jody Meikle.

Meikle's abilities belie the four wins from 29 on his pro record and his first-ever stoppage was coming after he shook Corbett with a looping right hook in the first round.

Corbett tried to fight back, only to take a few more, and was only saved when his gum shield flew out to buy him a bit more time.

In the second round, Corbett was coming back out of his corner and took another damaging right hook from Meikle which there was no way back from, with referee Shaun Messer intervening.