Paradise lost as Matt loses light-fly belt in clash on Caribbean

Windle and Derbyshire weigh-in before their battle

FIVE thousands miles away from the drizzle and pre-Christmas pandemonium of his Birmingham home, Matt Windle lost his Commonwealth light-flyweight title.

It was a case of paradise lost for the 33-year-old, beaten in the early hours of Saturday morning by rugged journeyman Craig Derbyshire.

On the Caribbean island of Grand Cayman, a land of swaying palms and 30 degree heat, the Punching Poet was halted in five rounds.

Windle, who fell at the first defence of his belt in George Town, said wryly afterwards: “On the bright side, there are definitely worse locations to get battered in.”

With his face showing the marks of battle, Windle told fans on facebook: “It wasn’t my night, it didn’t go how I wanted it to go. That’s boxing, no excuses. I lost to the better man on the night.”

How a Brummie and flint tough Yorkshireman came to fight in such an exotic location is one of boxing’s more bizarre twists.

Windle was to have faced an unbeaten Canadian. When that bout went south, Derbyshire stepped into the breach.

He looked a very capable substitute.

Derbyshire took the English flyweight title by outpointing Joe Maphosa in 2021 and last year drew in a British title scrap  with Tommy Frank. This year he lost on points to Connor Butler for the Commonwealth flyweight crown.

The question was whether the Doncaster 32-year-old could show the same fire and fury in his first fight at under eight stone.

Unfortunately for Matt, he did.

He may have come up short, but Friday night represented another extraordinary chapter in Windle’s extraordinary boxing story.

For starters, he’s the game’s only professional poet.

He slimmed down to light-fly at an age when most boxers go up in weight.

And he and Derbyshire are the first British boxers to compete for a title on the Cayman Islands.

Before the bout, Windle told me: “When I started boxing, I didn’t, in my wildest dreams, think I’d be fighting a man from Doncaster for a title in the Cayman Islands.”

None of us did, Matt. “But isn’t that just my story?” he added.