Pettigrew banishes the demons in style

Ashley Pettigrew…really impressed. Pic: MSN Images/BCB Promotions

I’LL admit to being very surprised by Ashley Pettigrew’s victory over Shane Smith on Saturday night.

Not the win itself, but the quick-fire nature of the demolition job that took place on BCB’s Bescot Stadium, Walsall, bill.

Pettigrew landed a right in the second, Smith went down heavily, and it was good night Vienna. The visitor’s trainer and manager, Adam Harper, threw in the towel at two minutes 48 seconds.

That’s an impressive performance by Stafford’s Pettigrew and I held fire on a mere blow-by-blow account because it merited an interview with the winner.

The 26-year-old – a carpet-fitter by day – is a hard man to pin down.

With the risk of having egg smeared on my face, I believed the scheduled four rounder represented a tricky assignment for Pettigrew. If there was to be an upset on the Bescot show, Tewkesbury’s Smith seemed the most likely to pull it off.

Afterall, Pettigrew had suffered a second round stoppage in his previous contest – and that was 14 months ago. After the loss, he and his girlfriend upped sticks to Thailand where Ashley found work in a fight gym.

Smith, aged 31, is one of the more ambitious journeymen. His trainer Harper, who I know well, has worked wonders on a man who was very green when he turned over. His rough edges were near serrated.

He is now competent, can more than hold his own and has pulled off upsets in a 10 fight career (seven losses).

He came to win against Pettigrew, from a white collar background where he lost only two of 25, and that partly proved his undoing. Pettigrew’s sharpness and precision had a greater say in the outcome.

“I was planning to take my time,” said Pettigrew, “but he surprised me by taking the fight to me. I felt comfortable and relaxed in there.”

It was the perfect return for Ashley, now with four wins in five, after his dramatic loss to dangerous Nikola Stoyanova last September.

“I was having demons in my head after that, I was thinking, ‘am I good enough?’ I got it (the confidence and belief) back when I was away and sparring in the gym,” he said.

Pettigrew worked for six months at the Apollo mixed martial arts gym in Chalong, Phuket.

“I just wasn’t myself in my last fight, I don’t know why,” he added. “I was super-welter for that one, 11st 6lbs for this and felt strong at the weight. I think middleweight is the weight for me. A lot of people have asked if the last fight was on my mind for this one. It wasn’t – I was just thinking about Saturday’s fight.

“I want to push on for titles, get a Midlands title fight and, if I win that, push on.”

Harper and beaten Smith have possibly learned a lesson about the art of being a journeyman. Many are defensively minded because attempting to be the aggressor increases the risks. Smith took the risk, forced the action and got burned.

The simple fact is you have to train a lot harder to win a fight than to survive the distance unscathed.