British junior welterweight Ted Bami followed in the footsteps of countrymen Ricky Hatton and Junior Witter by picking up the vacant European championship with a comprehensive points victory over the tough Italian Giuseppe Lauri.
Bami, the fighting barber from Brixton, took the fight as a substitute on just two weeks' notice. He looked in great shape and dished out a sustained pounding to have Lauri bumped up, bleeding from the nose and complaining throughout. The Italian had some success with counters, but couldn’t match Bami’s power and desire in this contest. Lauri looked like a beaten man from the midway point, standing in his corner between rounds with the ice pack on his head. His corner complained vigorously about imaginary infringements at every juncture – possibly influencing the fussy Hungarian referee to dock Bami a point in the eighth round for use of the head.
From the opening bell, Bami (136 lbs, 12oz) started as he meant to carry on, jumping on Lauri (136 lbs, 13oz) with hooks and pushing him to the ropes to bang the body. The Italian replied with jabs from a tight guard, but didn’t like it up close where Bami was already roughing him up.
Bami, clearly the aggressor, was mainly finding Lauri’s gloves to begin the second, but just kept banging in the shots, landing a roundhouse right to the top of Lauri’s head. Lauri fired back with the jab to pick off Bami at range, but a looping shot from the Londoner seemed to land with the elbow at the close of the round to raise a huge bump high on Lauri’s forehead above the left eye.
The Brixton man picked up the third where he had left off and tried the right hand. Lauri threw a good jab and left hook, but Bami replied with uppercuts in close to have his man on the floor. It was ruled a slip, but a punch clearly looked to have landed. Bami took this as a cue to open up - knocking the Italian around the ring and mauling him inside. Although the majority of Bami’s shots were landing high on the forehead, the force of the blows was enough to physically knock the Italian back and prevent him from throwing his counters.
The fourth was closer, Lauri managing to settle more and snap out the jab with some success. Bami then came back with his two fisted attacks and looked the more solid of the two, notably landing a big left hand which forced the Italian to the ropes. Some of Bami’s shots were still landing high, but he had taken the round.
Lauri started the fifth well with two good left hooks to Bami’s chin. Letting the punches go a bit quicker, he then set up a body attack to force Bami on to the back foot for the first time in the fight. Bami returned fire and took the centre of the ring again, but this was to be the Italian’s best round of the entire fight.
An untidy sixth saw Bami clubbing Lauri in close with head shots. The Italian, now bleeding from the nose, tried to get organised with his straighter punches but Bami, having none of it, continued to power in and maintain the pace he had set from the off.
Bami really started to come on in the seventh with hooks and hard uppercuts. Lauri, starting to look bashed up and now spitting blood, was game and tried to return fire, but the heavy hands of Bami were starting to batter him around the ring.
The Brixton man went to work again in the eighth, landing solid left uppercut, left hook combinations and forcing Lauri to give ground. The Italian was getting a working over and looked to hold inside, but Bami had other ideas, muscling in and throwing punches constantly. Heads were starting to bang in close and Bami, having been previously warned for use of the head was docked a point to have the crowd moaning. The swelling on Lauri’s forehead was egg sized by now.
Lauri managed to come back into it a little in the ninth round, landing a good right, but as soon as Bami opened up with a reply, the difference in power and physical strength was apparent. A huge uppercut to the chin looked like it was going to send Lauri’s head flying into the York Hall balcony – he did well to keep his feet and even answered back in the closing minute to have Bami rolling on the ropes to avoid his punches.
Bami, marching away with it, turned on another big attack in the tenth and the Italian looked dejected, eyeing his corner, who complained loudly about the rough stuff in close. The fact of the matter was that the Italian was getting soundly beaten and he and his camp knew it.
Both fighters were ticked off in the eleventh, Bami for the head, Lauri for leaning on in close, but it was Bami, up on his toes and boxing, who had the better of things. A left right sent Lauri stumbling across the ring and he just couldn’t land his shots despite the dip in pace.
Lauri landed a left hook to start the last round, but it was his last shout. Bami got right back in the driving seat and set up more attacks, landing uppercuts and heavy left hooks to completely dominate his opponent as had done so throughout. His hometown fans cheered him down the straight and he took the round, the fight and the title with a unanimous verdict: 112-115, 112-115 and 111-118.
