JOURNEYMAN boxer Derrick Spencer recovered from falling behind in the first two rounds of a six-round preliminary contest against debutante Jermaine Bowen in the Wray & Nephew Contender Series, to advance to the next round on a technical knockout decision in the sixth round at the Chinese Benevolent Association of Wednesday night.

The decision came 43 seconds into the final round after Bowen’s handlers threw in the towel to concede victory to Spencer, who fought on the Green Team, while representing Bruising Gym and prepared for the fight by Carl Grant.

Bowen fought on the Yellow Team and is trained by Andrew Boland at his Hard Knocks Gym, and his handlers act of rescue was only a mere formality for ring announcer Oliver Hardy to declare Spencer the winner of the fourth bout in the eight-fight elimination stage.

This was also the fourth victory in as many fights for Bruising Gym. But this was only after Spencer came perilously close to being disqualified for punching below the belt of his opponent.

Boland said he thought the referee should have taken more corrective measures of the fight, as was the case in the previous middleweight fight between Genroy Beckford and Phillip Reittie when Beckford was disqualified for excessive holding.

Points had been earlier deducted from Spencer and he was warned for at least two body shots that landed way below the belt.

The first, being the severest and from this point onward Bowen was a shadow of his earlier industry, and Spencer following his trainer’s instructions began to work the body of the rookie boxer.

Still showing visible signs of discomfort of the initial low blow Bowen’s punches became less effective and with Spencer continuing to work the body at every given opportunity, gained the upper-hand. Bowen showed guts and endured further punishment for the penultimate round.

At a crossroads whether to rise or not to rise seemed to weight heavily on the mind of Bowen as he showed noticeable reluctance to rise from his stool for the final round. Forty-three seconds later, Bowen, obviously in distress by his own commitment, forced his handlers to throw in the towel and call an end to the fiasco.

And what had started out as a brave gambit left Bowen leaning against the ropes in his corner, head down and gasping for breath. He was put at ease by sitting him down and the paramedics called in immediately to work feverishly at getting him to recover from his ordeal in the ring.

An upbeat Spencer told reporters that he was never in any danger of losing the fight. This was even though losing the first round and probably drawing the second. “I do not like to fight southpaws and that’s why he got me in the first round. But the coach said to me, ‘listen, keep up the pressure on this young boy. This boy is strong and he could move. So, you have to cut the ring off on him and step into him, and that is what I did.

“He kept complaining about low blows. I caught him with one clean low blow. I knew that. That was an accident. Guts is a clean fighter. The four other punches that he cried for low blow were never low. They were clean body shots, but he can’t take the body shots. He is weak around the body… and there is where the coach told me to live and I lived there. If you notice he never dropped. He is strong up stairs, but around the body he is weak.”

Grant was asked about the readiness of Bowen for professional boxing and the calibre of opponents he was likely to face. “Well, you have to question his management team about making a hasty decision and putting him into a big boy field.

“It was proven tonight that the kid was not ready. So he just needs to go back lick his wounds and comeback again.”

His advice to young boxers with ability who want to get into the big league: “You have to take time to mold and get yourselves ready for professional boxing. Fighting four rounds, six rounds and 10 rounds is not easy. Amateur boxing is three rounds, so you are stepping over and it takes time to get the body accustomed and in condition to overcome fatigue when it begins to set in when going over three rounds.”