Champion Gethin unhappy with sloppy showing

Martin Gethin completed the first leg of potentially 16 rounds of boxing in just two weeks - but was far from happy with his night's work.

The relaxed Walsall lightweight added the International Masters welterweight title to an ever-growing collection that sees a brace of English [pictured], a Midlands Area [both at 9st 9lbs] and British Masters [10st] belts in his trophy cabinet.

But Gethin finished the scrappy ten-rounder against naturally-bigger Slovakian Ivan Godor in Peterborough - tallied 98-95 in his favour by referee Ken Curtis - with a marked-up face and a hideous-looking swelling on his left eye.

Though i had the Errol Johnson-trained puncher a far more commanding 99-93 victor [giving the Eastern European the ninth and a share of the two rounds that proceeded it], it was never easy, difficult to watch and saw heads frequently rub together.

He's penciled in to box over six on a BoxNation-televised, Paul Rowson-promoted bill at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on March 23, topped by Shane McPhilbin's British cruiserweight title defence against former WBO world champion Enzo Maccarinelli, and will be hoping for a more clinical performance.

The Black Countryman lacked the fluidity that secured him stoppages over then-undefeated Yorkshire pair Nadeem Siddique, 22-0, and John Fewkes, 17-0, but this was only his second outing in just over two years, after a serious back complaint almost forced him to retire from the sport he's served so well.

Yet Gethin [10st 1lb] was, on the whole, too well-rounded and talented for the durable European import, who'd extended Tyrone Nurse and Karl Place over six on his previous visits to England. And though the 33-bout [eight wins and four draws, four stoppages] scrapper showed more fight in his first-ever title fight than he'd done against the said pair, the 28-year-old West Midlander had too many tools in his box.

You had the feeling that, if he'd have wanted to, Martin could have stepped up the tempo and dominated. But after putting the first six rounds in the bag with a well-timed jab and follow-up right, he  held his feet in range too much and shipped plenty of punches from Godor [9st 12lbs] in rounds seven, eight and nine.

Although Gethin took the final round and won his fifth strap at a third weight, he was far from happy with his work over the 30-minute distance."I was too sloppy and fell into his mauling ways throughout," he candidly conceded.

"I was guilty of plodding and i'm not pleased with the way i boxed. I'll improve for my next fight, though, and he was an awkward little fighter who kept coming low and messing up any rhythm i tried to find," added an honest father of one, now 20-3-1 (7), who sported a nasty black eye as he left the ring.