All action Owen Rees (2-0, 2 KO’s) kicked off tonight’s Next Gen show in Newcastle by stopping Konrad Czajkowski (2-2-1, 1 KO) in the fifth round of their six round super lightweight fight.
Rees likes to operate in the pocket and got straight into punching range, Czajkowski tried his best to match Rees’s energy and workrate but found himself on the receiving end of some accurate lead right hands and left hooks to head and body from the man from Newbiggin-by-the-Sea.
Czajkowski’s defense became more ragged in the second and Rees found the taller man almost impossible to miss with straight right hands. Rees was fighting at a relentless pace – maybe too frantic – and although the Polish fighter absorbed everything and kept throwing shots of his own, he began to become more and more disorganized under the sheer volume of Rees’ attack.
Rees continued pounding away and with the fifth round drawing to a close, he found another clean right hand. Czajkowski didn’t look particularly hurt but had taken five rounds of punishment and the referee decided enough was enough.
Heavy handed Essex middleweight Jimmy Sains (2-0, 2 KO) bullied Jesus Lobeto (1-3-1) from the opening bell of their four round fight.
Lobeto had very little to offer offensively and Sains took full advantage, turning the fight into a session of target practice. From the opening bell, he attacked the Spaniard with both hands, mixing up his attacks and showing plenty of variety. In the second round, Sains pinned Lobeto in a neutral corner but rather than wailing away, he picked him apart smartly. Sains altered his angle of attack, picked some nice uppercuts and never forgot to work the body.
There wasn’t a single shot that signaled the end for Lobeto but he was under nonstop pressure when the referee stepped in to save him after 1.56 of the second round.
Ben Rees (2-0-1, 2 KO’s) got his southpaw left hand working straight away against Sadaam Moamed Da Silva Caetano (7-4, 5 KO’s). The light heavyweight cleverly used his feet to make the Angolan fall short and couldn’t miss with that counter left hand, dominating the opening round and looking well set to finish the fight inside the six scheduled rounds.
Caetano didn’t help his cause by leading with a slow right hand to the body and looked far too open and easy to hit but midway through the second round he suddenly turned the tables on the home favorite, knocking him down with a perfectly timed right hook.
Wary of the threat Caetano posed, Rees found it harder to land his left hand and rather than using the tactics that worked so well early on, he spent more time fighting at close quarters. The fight became scrappy but Rees was more compact and accurate inside and in the third he hurt Caetano with another left hand when he did manage to keep some space between the two.
Rees began to catch an exhausted Caetano at the end of his punches in the third round and managed to put together a couple of sustained bursts, hurting Caetano with right hooks. The visitor tried to retaliate with short uppercuts but was fighting on fumes and Rees accelerated through the gears. Rees hurt Caetano with hard straight shots and seized his moment, letting both hands go until the referee jumped in to save Caetano at 1.32 of round number five.