Mum's the word as Luke Paddock belts up

Paddock headlined the 'Christmas Cracker' show in the Stadium Suite at the Banks's on Friday night upon his return to action, writes Craig Birch.

It was the scene where he relinquished his Midlands light welterweight title to Andy Keates over-the-distance by one point in September.

But it proved to be a happier hunting ground for the 24-year-old this time, as he won the British Challenge strap by seeing off Chris Adaway.

'Cool Hand' banked the full eight rounds in the process, without dropping a session. He then dedicated the fight to his mother, Trudy Grundy, with dad Steve also in vocal support at ringside.

Paddock said: "I boxed fairly well, but I'm a bit disappointed. I'm a perfectionist and I didn't get to do everything that I would have liked to.

"I got the cleaner shots in, I would have just liked to have landed a few more of them. I had to match Adaway's work-rate.

"Fair play to him, he really is a livewire. He came to fight and got stuck in, so I have to take my hat off to him.

"I want to thank my mum, as well, she's done a lot for me this year. I've had some personal issues to deal with and she's been a big help."

Paddock soon imposed himself on the smaller Adaway, who took a share of two rounds along the way having come up from super featherweight.

'Cool Hand' looked comfortable and was always in control, taking the centre of the ring from the off looking to throw a high volume of punches.

Adaway wasn't difficult to hit but proved harder to pin down, using his more diminutive stature to escape danger.

He held when he needed to take a breather and tried to smother Paddock's work, but he came under real fire in the fourth.

He couldn't get away as Paddock reined in with blows but he couldn't find the killer punch, the best chance of a finish over the contest.

It was a cruise to the finish for Paddock, who recorded a 80-74 points victory with referee for the night Shaun Messer to take the title.

It was the main event of a four-bout dinner show staged by Errol Johnson's Black Country Boxing, with three four-rounders that all went the distance completing the card.

Halesowen's Lennox Clarke worked off the ring rust with his first bout in nine months, shutting out Elvis Dube 40-36.

The undefeated super middleweight moved to 9-0-0 and was taking no chances against the strong Dube, clearing the cobwebs in the process.

Boxing legend Ricky Hatton was on hand to lead two of his charges, working the corner for Wednesbury's Sam Evans and Reuben Arrowsmith.

Both turned pro at the same venue in October, with this Evans' first outing since as he took on the durable Danny Little.

He targeted the body, which led him to a fourth round stoppage of Latvian Zaurs Sadihovs on his paid bow. This time, Little was going nowhere.

Evans learned on the job and had to be clever to disguise and sink in his shots. He piled on the pressure, but Little used his experience to get through it.

Arrowsmith, meanwhile, built on points successes over Kevin McCauley and Victor Edagha, the latter at Walsall Town Hall on December 5.

The light middleweight, from Market Harborough in Leicestershire, made it a flawless victory this time, 40-36 against the rarely-stopped William Warburton. The previous two wins were 40-37.