Chris Male stunned by first round KO defeat

The Cradley fighter had already been decked once before the finish came, with just 10 seconds of the first session left to go at Walsall Town Hall on Saturday night.

Male was first sent hurtling into the ropes from a booming right hand and eventually landed on the canvas. He rose sharply, but was still shaken from the blow.

His defences were still down when Coventry's James launched another stiff right hook, which rattled Male's cranium and left him flat out on the canvas.

Referee Howard Foster called straight for the bell, signalling the end of a scheduled 10-round contest, and gestured for medical attention. Male left the ring under his own steam.

Not only has it cost the punching postman the chance of a shot at British champion Stephen Smith, the vacant Midlands super featherweight title was also on the line as an added incentive.

In the night's other title fight, Stafford's Rob Hunt was counted out against Stourbridge's Steven Pearce as the two battled for the also-vacant International Masters welterweight belt.

'Fierce Pearce,' the former Midlands champion, put all of his might behind a right hook that cracked Hunt square on the sternum, forcing him to take a knee.

He was clearly in great pain as he tried to beat referee Robert Chalmers' count but failed to answer the 10 count, handing Pearce the victory 33 seconds into the fifth round.

Hunt had started the bout like a house on fire and caught Pearce with a right hand over the top, an uppercut to the ribs and a snapping right hook to the body over the first two rounds.

Pearce shrugged off the blows and mounted an offensive, as both spent the third round trading punches. Blood leaked from the nose of Hunt in the fourth, as the finish loomed large.

There was equal disaster for Tipton's Ainsley Ratcliffe, who lost his professional debut on points after a four-round battle against Hungarian visitor Csaba Kovacs at flyweight.

Ratcliffe was stepping up to the paid ranks after winning Midlands titles in the novice and junior ABA competitions, as an amateur for William Perry ABC in Tipton.

But the 19-year-old lost by a round in a 39-38 points decision with referee Shaun Messer, his nose bloodied as he paid the price for a slow start. His best work came in the last two rounds.

There were no such problems for Halesowen's Lennox Clarke, who scored an impressive second round stoppage over the never-before-halted James Child on his paid bow.

Clarke displayed his power with a loaded right hook that felled Child in the first round and the same shot forced referee Messer to act, one minute and 58 seconds into the second round.

In the opening fight of the night, West Bromwich's Tom Stokes recorded his third straight win as a professional boxer with a 40-36 points shut-out of London-based Bulgarian Danny Dontchev.

The teenage welterweight, 18, worked off the jab as Dontchev pressed forward behind a high guard to make it a hat-trick of paid victories, all coming under the bright lights of the Town Hall.

By Craig Birch