O’Meara overcomes cuts to secure win
Steve O’Meara overcame cuts over both eyes to make a winning return to the ring, beating Chas Symonds on points on the undercard of Nathan Cleverly’s world title fight at Wembley Arena.
Clashes of heads left O’Meara with a cut over the right eye in the opening round and then a nasty injury over the left, which led to moments of concern towards the end of the third.
After the ring doctor allowed O’Meara to carry on before the start of the fourth, the West Drayton man boxed at longer range for the rest of the six-round contest and was a 58-56 winner after having a point deducted for a low blow late in the fight.
It was the Shepherd’s Bush-born light-middleweight’s first outing since an unsuccessful attempt to win the Commonwealth title in December.
“I half-panicked and thought there’s no way I was going to let the fight get stopped, so I tried to get him out of there,” he told West London Sport.
“That was probably not the best idea and they weren’t the tactics when I went in there with, but I felt I had to do something.
“He was catching me but not hurting me, so I neglected my defence a bit and was prepared to take one to give one to try and stop him.”
And O’Meara admitted he was worried when the referee seemed inclined to stop the fight before the beginning of the fourth round.
He said: “I was pleading with the referee. I said to him: ‘I can see fine’ and he wasn’t listening to me.
“The first person you should ask is the fighter and see if he can see. At least test me rather than telling me I can’t see.
“It didn’t seem like he was on my side at all and he’s meant to be caring for the fighters.
“When the crowd comes and pays money to see fights, the last thing they want is to see a fighter get stopped prematurely on a cut.
“The referee didn’t seem to give a monkey’s about that and if he’d stopped that fight I’d have been really disappointed in him and in boxing in general.
“I know next time to stick to the gameplan and not panic, but the ref didn’t help with that panic because I saw him keep looking at the doc.
“The ref would have helped if he’d have been a bit calmer. He looked over the doctor twice and as a fighter you know that’s not good.
“I told the doc I was okay and luckily he agreed with me. I’m pleased to get the win.”
Earlier in the evening, Harrow’s super-featherweight prospect Mitchell Smith enhanced his growing reputation by destroying Gavin Reid in the first round.
Wembley welterweight Gary Corcoran also maintained his unbeaten record, comfortably beating Tottenham’s Mark McKray, but there was a controversial defeat for Northolt light-middleweight Ryan Toms.
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