Shaw shrugs off slow start to keep unbeaten tag

Tom Shaw made certain his maiden hometown date as a professional stayed on course.

The unbeaten Burton lightweight overcame a slow start against willing late replacement Francis Maina, on a Hatton Promotions bill at Bury's Castle Leisure Centre last night [March 2], to have his hand lofted skywards and register his fourth win in as many bouts.

For the record, Steve Gray's 39-37 [or 3-1 in rounds] scoreline, handed up from ringside for trialist official Alvin Finch, looked spot-on for me.

Shaw [pictured] is set to box on the undercard of Jonjo Finnegan's vacant International Masters super-middleweight title fight with Ryan Clark at Meadowside Leisure Centre on March 30 - his first appearance in his Staffordshire hometown as a paid fighter - and will go into it having learnt from a testing scrap that saw him drop his first round [16 completed] since turning over 12 months ago.

Undefeated in two [one stoppage and one draw], Maina [10st 2lbs] drew with Nottingham's Barrington Brown on his pro bow last year and started the 12-minute contest well. His spearing overhand right frequently proving a nuisance, the well-built ex-MMA exponent forced Errol Johnson-trained Shaw to give ground on several occasions.

But the well-schooled West Midlander tightened up a low left from the second onwards, composed himself, and some neat boxing at range - a solid lead [sometimes doubled] followed by long, accurate rights - kept the older Londonder, whose record evens out at 1-1-1 (1), in check for the rest of the YouTube-screened fight.

Tom was enjoying himself by the time the bell rang to end the always-watchable four-rounder and the 21-year-old will have benefited from an excellent piece of match-making by Richard Poxon.

Image courtesy of Gavin Burrows.