Kid Galahad returns to the ring on Saturday to have himself a skeet shoot at the Hillsborough Leisure Centre in Sheffield. Barnsley rival Josh “The Outlaw” Wale plays the role of clay pigeon. Channel Five continue their most welcome foray into the sport, confident no doubt that Galahad’s back story, a sort of Luke Skywalker to Naseem Hamed’s Darth Vader, is a worthwhile investment for bigger nights to come. For terrestrial viewers in the U.K., it is a chance to watch a young artisan at work, a whip-smart Wincobank padawan making steady strides in the junior featherweight division.
His opponent, Wale, is a limited but willing bantamweight scrapper. The Brampton man’s record reads 14-3-1 (7) yet closer inspection reveals that he’s only beaten three fighters with winning slates, and one of those looked a horrible hometown decision to the detriment of French livewire Yoan Boyeaux (a six rounder during which Wale was cut and then dropped). Essentially, that leaves us with a three round decision win over a fossilised version of Esham Pickering and a four round triumph over Barking journeyman Marc Callaghan, which isn’t nearly a strong enough CV to trouble Galahad, you would imagine.
In his last outing, the Kid, 11-0 (4), managed to dominate a still-useful Jason Booth — save for a flash knockdown suffered on the bell to end round 1. He’s barely dropped a point as a pro, owing to his ability to corral his opposition with an ever-burgeoning repertoire of punches. Though only in possession of moderate power, he came close to taking Booth out on a number of occasions thanks to a blend of wicked timing and industrious combination punching.
Galahad is almost certainly going to look more potent against a fighter less astute than is Booth, and the baby-faced Wale can make him look a million pounds, which is the point, of course. It will be one-sided yet fascinating with it, with Galahad hitting his mark inside the scheduled distance.
Undercard action features Junior “The Hitter” Witter, 40-5 (22), rematching Colin Lynes, 36-9 (12), for the Hornchurch man’s British welterweight championship, while middleweight Chris Eubank Jr., 3-0 (2), continues his march to prominence against “The Pocklington Rocket” Harry Matthews, 12-5-1 (2).
