Mooney books place in Top Boxer last four

Mooney celebrates with Marginson after the points victory

AS I trudged through the car park at Planet Ice, Solihull, following Saturday night’s memorable show, Michael Mooney was singing and dancing with supporters.

He was holding court.

The buoyant mood was understandable. In Tommy Owens’ Top Boxer lightweight tournament, the veteran of over 100 fights registered his first win in over four years, outpointing Harley Marginson.

The four round decision – 39-37 – also represented success for former English champ Adam Harper, taking his first tentative steps as a pro trainer with Worcester’s Mooney.

Mooney’s reward is a semi-final date with tournament favourite Dylan Norman who won his quarter-final in a round.

Bolton’s Marginson – an ambulance driver by day – is better than his record of eight straight losses suggests. He fought tidily against Mooney, had the better of the early exchanges and landed some crisp uppercuts.

But Mooney upped the pace down the stretch and found room for solid body shots.

You could almost see the ring rust falling from Michael’s shoulders as the contest progressed. And when his hand was raised, the Worcester warrior celebrated as if a world title had been won.

At 38, and having entered the Top Boxer tournament at three weeks notice, collecting the competition’s £6,000 top prize would be a real Cinderella story for Mooney.

As he put it: “It’s like Apollo Creed coming to town and giving the local lad the shot. This could be the real life Rocky story. This is the last chance saloon, it’s my last dance. When I was training, I was dropping people in the gym. Now I’m back training hard.”

He’s certainly a colourful character. Boxing is a very serious business: Mooney removes the “very” from that sentence.

It was close and Marginson felt hard done by, posting on social media: “Got absolutely robbed tonight, sorry everyone who supported me and wished me well. Didn't do enough apparently. Onto the next one at least. I'm not hurt, I didn't get hit with anything clean, if at all.”

Harper said: “Considering he had two-and-a-half weeks to train for this, he didn’t do badly.

“Let’s be honest, Mooney is not the fighter he was – we have to acknowledge that. But he’s really up for this, is training hard and has weeks to prepare for Dylan Norman.”

That’s something Michael Mooney hasn’t been for a number of years – really “up” for a contest.