Jonjo avenges Elvis defeat but first loss for Parker

Burton favourite Jonjo Finnegan is not a huge Elvis fan but had promised he'd send the King of  Rock 'n' Roll's  namesake, Derby-based Elvis Dube, to the Heartbreak Hotel when they met in their six-round rematch on Monday night (June 13).

And true to his word, on a Pat Cowdell-promoted show at Birmingham's Holiday Inn, Finnegan boxed his way to a 58-57 12-minute  points win over a chunky, heavy-handed banger who'd shockingly dropped and stopped the former Irish light-heavyweight title challenger when they'd met at the same venue in Febraury.

Finnegan had controlled five rounds of that fight before walking onto a series of heavy shots from Shinfield-handled Dube. Despite looking as though he could have carried on after hauling himself up on that night, the reigning British Masters super-middleweight champion's future was called into question.

He admitted if he hadn't of beaten Elvis, now with three wins (two via stoppage) in 12 paid outings that has seen his swap leather with several top-quality prospects, this time around then he would have probably ended his involvement in a sport that he has served since a 12-year-old boy.

Now the 31-year-old, who looked a handier winner than  referee Terry O'Connor's scorecard  might suggest and who boxed neatly at range for the majority of the contest, can look forward to a rubber match in September, with both the Masters and the vacant Midland Area 12st belts at stake.

He said: "I had a game plan and i stuck to it throughout. I think i showed the person i am to get back into the ring a few months after he had stopped me.

"But i would have quit had he beat me again," Errol Johnson-trained Finnegan, now 14-6-3, candidly confessed. "Yet i showed him the way home and we could fight again in Burton in September for the Area belt."

But there was disaster for another Johnson-trained Burton boxer, light-middleweight stylist Duane Parker, who had his unbeaten record snapped in pro fight 14 by fired-up Hull scrapper Richard Troupe.

Tall, measured Parker was set to box for the vacant Midland Area 11st title in September but will have to go back to the drawing board after being decked and stopped by a man who had only won one of his previous six going into their scheduled eight-twos.

Referee O'Connor called an immediate halt to the fight with a second remaining of the fourth after the well-supported 23-year-old was felled by a bone-crunching left. He'd already hit the canvas in the second and Troupe, seven years older than Parker at 30, had made his five-pound (11'5) weight advantage show.

But Duane looked to have put rounds in the bank in between the knockdown and claimed he could of continued, admitting: "He caught me with a good shot but i know, given the chance, i could of carried on and got on top.

"I'd love the rematch so, like Jonjo, i can set the record straight."

Sedgley light-middle Tom Bowen won his second fight in a week to take his record to 3-1, outpointing (59-56 for O'Connor) winless but willing Earls Court-based African Bheki Moyo. The 22-year-old avenged an earlier points defeat to Scotsman Scott Ross last week and  looked in command throughout. Moyo may have a record that now shows 29 defeats in 30  (a solitary draw with Martin Gordon halting the run of reversals) but he's durable and gave the Black Country boxer something to think about.

It was a six-twos.