Patterson batters ex-Big Brother star Bird

Andrew Patterson ended a winless 12 months by de-railing the hometown comeback of former Big  Brother star JJ Bird.

The hard-nosed Birmingham welterweight [pictured] shrugged off a 10lb weight disparity at The Arena in Peterborough to thump out a convincing 40-37 [presumably giving Bird a share of the third] victory from referee Jeff Hinds and halt a 12-fight losing streak.

And such was the one-sided nature of the four-threes that was promoted by Robert Waterman and broadcast live on YouTube last night [March 9], i marked it down as a complete shut-out.

Having seen Bird box in the Midlands before - close points defeat to Dale Miles and a draw with former Midlands Area boss Rob Kenney - i'd mentioned in the week leading up to scrap that the West Midlander might be too strong. So it proved.

From those previous viewings it was noticeable that JJ, who finished fourth in 2010's Big Brother, likes to be given room to do his work at a distance and use every inch of the ring to his advantage. But Patterson, 32, intelligently never gave him enough space to get his jab going - stalking him around for the entirety of the 12-minute scrap.

And Bird, now trained by former European super-bantamweight champion Spencer Oliver, ate booming right hands over the top from as early as the opening minute. Chin held out to dry and with only a pawing lead to try and keep the aggressive-minded Brummie off him, the heavier [11st 11 1/2lbs] Cambridgeshire middleweight looked rattled on the return to his corner.

But the second followed in the same vein, with Jon Pegg-trained Patterson [10st 13 1/2lbs] plowing forward and landing overhand rights with ease. He even made the 25-year-old's legs dip late on and though Bird tried to gain a foothold with a nice bit of back-foot boxing in the third and with whipping uppercuts in the last, 'Patt' continued to be the man doing the damage.

Bird, whose 6-6-2 professional ledger includes a victory over former British and European title challenger Dave Walker, had no complaints when his opponent's hand was raised at the bell and will have to look at his leaky defence if he wants to add more victories to his record.

Now with five wins and three draws [four stoppages] in 35, it was a well-deserved break for Patterson - a hard-working, never-say-die family man who loves a scrap and is penciled in to cross swords with five-fight unbeaten Portsmouth prospect Mark Coombs at the city's Mountbatten Centre next Saturday.