Portsmouth's Tony Oakey made the most of his experience to lift the light-heavyweight Prizefighter title in Bethnal Green on Friday night.
Former British and WBU champion victorious in Prizefighter
Portsmouth's Tony Oakey made the most of his experience to lift the light-heavyweight Prizefighter title in Bethnal Green on Friday night.
The 33-year-old, who came into the eight-man event on the back of two failed attempts to lift the Commonwealth title, looked the class act throughout and deserved to take home the £25,000 winner's cheque.
Oakey battled past Billy Boyle in a quarter-final tear-up before causing an upset victory over pre-tournament favourite Courtney Fry.
Oakey landed some big right hands against Fry, who suffered a cut above the left eye in the second following an unfortunate clash of heads.
But the former British and WBU belt holder won on all three judges' cards to book a final date against the veteran Darren Stubbs, who reached the final in controversial circumstances.
Stubbs, at 37 the oldest in the competition, stunned Steve Spartacus with a looping right hand to the temple in the second round of their quarter-final with the former British title challenger unable to beat the count.
That earned Stubbs a semi-final date with Carl Dilks, who had struggled past awkward southpaw Bob Ajisafe in their opener, but the Liverpudlian upped his game when he reappeared.
Dilks easily won the opening round but Stubbs came out firing in the second before a close third in which appeared to have done enough, landing the classier shots despite Stubbs' gritty style.
The judges gave it to Dilks on a split decision, but five minutes later the result was reversed with organisers claiming a mix-up in the counting up of the scores.
Therefore it was the pre-tournament outsider Stubs who faced Oakey in the final, but the Portsmouth grinder looked by the far the fresher of the two and his work-rate and natural ability ensured the judges made no mistake, this time all three giving all three rounds to him.
