‘King’ Arthur defeated Dec Spelman to retain his Commonwealth crown in a unanimous decision victory.

In an evenly matched opening round Arthur took the back foot, waiting for an opportunity to land his patented right hand, while Spelman pushed the pace on the front foot. Spelman continued to try to push over the next two rounds, but Arthur had already gotten in a few uppercuts and jabs, he was boxing well.  By the end of the third round, as Arthur increased his accuracy, Spelman’s face had already become bloody.

Spelman came back to own the fourth round, putting together some clean shots with the straight and left hook working well.  But the cut across his right eye was beginning to swell and looked like it might hinder him in the next round. Although Spelman worked hard in the fifth round, he stiff jabs and a solid right uppercut from Arthur, who was beginning to show his class. Spelman bought it back at the end to finish the round with some good shots himself.

Dominating the start of the sixth round, Arthur held Spelman back with a series of lead punches. Although Spelman’s energy didn’t fail, the blood was beginning to show more and the round eventually closed with Arthur throwing confident shots at Spelman. Spelman was clearly feeling the fight by round seven, however, he did manage to make Arthur wince with a good right hook to Arthurs body. By round eight, Arthur’s quality continued to shine, despite the pressure Spelman added.

Spelman continued to work hard through rounds nine and ten but the difference in quality between the men only became more evident as Arthur boxed off the back foot beautifully. He delivered bludgeoning shots, powerful jabs and looked comfortable at all ranges.

In the eleventh round, Spelman pressed the action, there was a sense of urgency in the air, he knew time was running out.  The final round was dominated by Arthur, who determined the pace of the fight with solid jabs and accurate power shots.

The winner was evident, the judges confirmed that ‘King’ Arthur had defended his crown by margins of 116-112, 116-113 and 119-109 respectively.

‘King’ Arthur faces bigger fights and bigger challenges, with a fight against Anthony Yarde upcoming, but for now, we join in the chant: “long live the ‘king’.”

Arthur’s jab was the talk of the night, with comments like:

“Top class jab from Lyndon Arthur. Good fighter.”  Dennis McCann

“I’ve got Lyndon every round here. Couple closer ones but can’t go against him on any. Spelman very tough though.” Sunny Edwards

“Lyndon Arthur’s jab is serious!!!” Sunny Edwards