Jack Rafferty warmed up for his upcoming British super lightweight title fight with a third round stoppage of India’s Sabari Jaishankar in Liverpool on Saturday night.
Fighting at welterweight, Rafferty, 23-0 (14 KOs), calmly and smartly walked Jaishankar down behind a high guard, catching the majority of the tall, tidy Jaishankar’s return fire on a tight guard. Offensively, Rafferty used straight stabbing shots and feints to force the Indian to give ground.
Midway through the third round, Rafferty dropped Jaishankar with a hard jab to the stomach. Although he returned to his feet, Rafferty floored him twice more before the fight was waved off by the referee John Latham.
The victory was Rafferty’s fifth via stoppage in his past six appearances, and served as the ideal warm-up for his upcoming shot at the British super-lightweight title recently vacated by Dalton Smith. Earlier in June the British Boxing Board of Control put a vacant title fight between the 28 year old from Shaw and Henry Turner, 13-0 (5 KOs), out to purse bids. Unless a deal is agreed, bids will be opened on July 10.
On the same promotion Jazza Dickens, 33-5 (15 KOs), recorded victory with a dominant sixth round stoppage of Jayro Fernando Duran. The Honduran struggled with the former British super-bantamweight champion and was dropped three times, but rather than cruising to the final bell, Dickens pursued the finish and finally forced the referee Steve Gray to stop the fight midway through the final round.
Campaigning at 130lbs, Dickens has been linked to a number of big names, but rather than fighting one immediately, he took the chance to build his relationship with his new trainers Joe McNally and Declan O’Rourke.
OTHER RESULTS
Jack Power W TKO 1 Genadij Krajevskij
Stephen Clarke W PTS 6 Jordan Grannum
Vaida Masiokaite W PTS 6 Liv Hussey
Kevin Cronin W PTS 6 Serhii Ksendzov
Jamie Morrissey W PTS 6 Hussein Itaba
Ted Jackson W PTS 4 Fernando Valencia
