Ringside Report: Conah Walker Sensationally Stops Harry Scarff in Nottingham

Ringside Report: Conah Walker Sensationally Stops Harry Scarff in Nottingham

‘The commentator’s curse is a saying in sports commentary that refers to when a commentator says something and then the opposite happens.’

I might not have been commentating last night in Nottingham, but the above most definitely applies. A wannabe scribe who thought he was reading the fight quite perfectly. A message was sent in round 11. ‘This was a 50/50 fight on paper. But Walker is not really in it.’ My words as Harry Scarff was seemingly in control of his British and Commonwealth welterweight title fight against Conah Walker. But literally, as the message was on its way to the recipient, Walker had other ideas. Within seconds of that message being sent, he had sensationally turned the fight right around. The curse had struck again.

It was an ending nobody had seen coming. The Walker faithful had come in vast numbers. They brought their voice, but by the halfway point, they had largely lost that voice. Even the faithful had lost faith. It had the look of a fight of the night. It was, in reality, a one-sided fight. Until it wasn’t. And the Walker faithful once again found their voice.

Scarff had won virtually every round. Walker just couldn’t get close enough for long enough to get his game plan working effectively enough to give any indication that he could do what he somehow did in that pivotal 11th round. Walker only had pockets of success. Scarff looked as though he was coasting to a certain victory. Scarff said he was beyond domestic class. For ten straight rounds, he had shown that he was exactly that.

But one big looping right hand landed clean, and suddenly, out of absolutely nowhere, Scarff was on the floor. Wild scenes at ringside quickly followed. Scarff bravely climbed back to his feet, but Walker wasn’t about to give him a reprieve. He was relentless and unstoppable when the referee waved Scarff back out to battle. In truth, by that point, it was only to survive. Walker didn’t stop throwing punches at Scarff, and when the pre-fight betting favourite didn’t respond in kind, the fight was quite rightly waved off, and the celebrations began.

You have to feel much sympathy for Scarff. He was in complete control until that right hand landed with a fight and career-changing effect. But Conah Walker more than deserves his moment. Denied a rightful victory over Lewis Crocker last year in Birmingham. He now finally has his moment.

Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing