THINGS didn't go according to plan, so all Ojay Abrahams could do was sit alone in his empty suite at the Burlington Hotel and wonder why he's not boxing champ anymore.

Everyone else in the place seemed to be going to the bar in an effort to drown their sorrows or toast their success.

Not Ojay. He was too depressed to leave the room now he didn't have the British Masters Light Middleweight championship belt he loved so much.

He could have a drink but he'd still wake up sore and an ex-champion.

Before the fight, he had it all worked out. And as he shadow boxed in front of the floor length mirror, getting loose, it sounded pretty simple.

Jimmy Vincent would keep coming forward, throwing wild punches. Ojay would hold him back with jabs, and if Vincent got through he'd be walking into hooks and uppercuts. Ojay would put him down early on.

But after ten rounds of savage fighting in the main room of the Burlington, right in the middle of Birmingham, Vincent was still on his feet.

The final bell rang and the referee raised his arm, which meant he retained the title 96 points to 95.

Ojay went into the fight trying to get back the belt he relinquished after injury stopped him defending it against Vincent in October.

Until the moment he was beaten in the ring, Ojay felt he was still the rightful title holder, still champ.

But now the fight was over and Ojay had lost.

Little more than half an hour earlier, this result did not seem likely. Early in the second round Jimmy Vincent was sitting on the canvas after being caught by a fast, accurate left uppercut.

After an eight count, the fight restarted, Abrahams feeling his way with the jab, trying to set his opponent for another uppercut.

Fists were breaking through Vincent's guard and he swung arching punches Abrahams easily slipped under.

The Watford fighter looked comfortable and happier than he did in the opening round when Vincent, wearing a blonde beard like Howard Eastman, came forward hard forcing Ojay into the ropes.

The jabs were missing, but Abrahams was trapped in a corner and taking body shots.

Both rounds, Ojay had kept his hands low around his chest. Vincent was stepping in behind jabs and trying, successfully, to hit Ojay's exposed head.

Undefeated WBF World middleweight champion Lester Jacobs was working the blue corner for Abrahams, pushing in a stool and a bottle of water between rounds.

During the early stages, he was shouting for Ojay to lift his hands, warning "he's gonna get caught".

Jacobs started looking happier when Ojay threw some fast combinations, and worked hard, hooking into Vincent's body. As he punched either side of the Birmingham fighter's elbows, his guard opened for uppercuts.

But Abrahams didn't connect with enough, stepping back looking to pick a perfect knockout blow. More than once, this let Vincent recover and move away from the ropes, to counterattack, always aiming for the unguarded head, which took some clean left hands.

After the fight, Jacobs said Ojay could have won the belt if he stopped admiring the good punches and got to work following them up.

He told the defeated fighter: "You hit him with a lot of clean shots but you admired it."

Jacobs explained: "Because he's a powerful fighter he thinks he can just knock him out, which stopped him taking it."

"He was looking for the shot instead of letting the hands flow."

By the fourth round, it was clear both fighters, who weighed in the same at just under 11 stone, were in a tough, even and crowd pleasing contest. Neither man was cut, both were scoring and missing in equal amounts.

Ojay's low guard meant he was rocked back by a heavy straight right to the head, with Vincent pouring in. Ojay had been caught posing without a defence and found himself knocked into the ropes, but still on his feet.

After the fight Abrahams conceded he had been "too cocky, too confident".

"I'm gutted," he whispered, "it's so disappointing especially when you're 36 not 26, not a bit younger."

"I don't think he was a better boxer than me. In the early rounds I was too confident."

He continued: "Even if I thought he had won, a boxer is never going to say that, what can you expect?"

John Ashton, also in the blue corner with Jacobs, said it was a good championship fight.

Talking about a rematch which the chairman of the professional boxing promoters association said would happen early next year John said if Ojay learned from this fight he'd win the next.

"You've got to move across, give him some angles to try to hit. Kid him," he said. "All the time you were in the firing line and he could catch you."

Needless to say, Jimmy Vincent saw the fight differently. He said he had been hard but he had felt comfortable.

He said no one could question his right to hold the title now Abrahams had been beaten. "I'm the champion," he said.

The fighters will meet again and have a chance to settle the issue.

Ojay wants the fight because he still wants the belt. He said: "I'll bring my title back, I feel I have just been robbed.

"There's still fire in the oven yet."

December 15, 2001 17:00