Desmond won on points 39-37 handing Brown with his first loss in the pro ranks. Both middleweights came into the fight undefeated having beaten the same opponent in their previous bout – each winning on points against Keiran Gray over four three minute rounds last year.
The victorious Desmond beamed, “I’m over the moon and, to be fair, I felt a little bit of pressure going into this fight against someone unbeaten. I know he only had one fight but he beat a good man in that fight. It was one of the best wins I’ve had as a pro so definitely my best performance yet.”
Wiltshire-based Brown, 26-years-old, was a stand-in opponent for Dan Blackwell, younger brother to former English middleweight champ, Nicky Blackwell, who pulled out a week before the fight.
The 6ft 2″ tall middleweight continued to describe the events in the ring that night, “I was catching him with some good, clean shots and gradually wearing him down. The game plan was to see him out during the first round, I’d seen clips of him online but not much so I just wanted to adjust to his style.”
The young prospect is trained by respected coach Kevin Lilley at The Fight Farm Gym in Basildon, Essex and although this was Desmond’s fourth fight as a pro, it was only the second with his new coach, Lilley in the corner.
Desmond has already shown signs of improvement under Lilley’s command and also demonstrated his maturity and discipline on the night by sticking to the game plans and taking instructions from his corner when prompted.
He explained, “We saw on BoxRec that he was 6ft tall so we wanted to pressure him a bit and up the work rate a bit more. You have got to listen to your corner in between rounds and they told me not to be lazy with my jab and to continue working the body a lot to slow him down and take the sting out of his punches.”
The former West Ham ABC amateur trains alongside teammates Darrel Church, Vinzenz Kuech, Joe Jackson, Paul Hilz and Mickey Steeds.
Immediately after the fight, Desmond announced he would be back out in June, eager to continue the momentum that has seen him reach 4-0 within his debut year, “I just can’t wait for my next fight now, the plan is that I’m going on holiday to Thailand for two weeks and when I come back I’ll get straight back in the gym as I’ve got June 20th as my next date,” he said.
“After that I’ll see what my trainers say, I’ll see what the plan is after the fight. I want to stay unbeaten but by the end of this year I’d like to be doing eight to ten rounds.”
The rest of the action on the night saw unbeaten southpaw Johnny Coyle move up to 9-0-1 winning 80-73 on points against Liam Richards 11-5 to lift the vacant British Masters Bronze light-welterweight title.
Coyle, trained by Alec Wilkey at the talent-filled Lansbury ABC in Poplar, adds this first title to the trophy cabinet currently holding the prestigious Prizefighter welterweights cup from April last year.
Another unbeaten southpaw Vinzenz Kuech, now 5-1, was also involved in an eight round Masters title contest but came away with a different outcome suffering his first defeat at the hands of Daza Usher who moves up to 8-4.
The 23-year-old Essex boxer known as ‘Bam-Bam’ was stopped in the final round after having his opponent on the canvas in the round before. Trainer, Kevin Lilley threw in the towel midway through the referee’s count.
While the German-born southpaw tasted his first defeat, his conqueror lifted his first ever title by claiming the vacant British Masters Bronze welterweight strap on his third attempt at Masters honours after losing out to Nicky Jenman and Liam Taylor last year on the middleweight and light-welterweight versions.
Trainer-come-boxer Frank Greaves 1-1 got his first win in the pro ranks by defeating journeyman Dan Carr 40-37 on points. The 37-year-old Londoner lost on his debut to former Southern Area welterweight champion Gavin Tait 14-10 in November last year but has now levelled his tally.
Debutant light-heavyweight boxer, Joe Jackson Brown 1-0 from Banbury, Oxfordshire got his pro career started with a bang by stopping his opponent Charlie Brown 0-1 in the second round. Not only did the pair share the same surname but also the same record, both entering the fight as debutants.
Follow Liam Desmond on Twitter @liam_desmond