Ryan shows he has bottle to win belts

Woolridge…survived a cut to pound out points win

TALL southpaw Ryan Wooldridge survived the first mini-crisis of his career – a cut in the corner of his left eye – to pound out at hard-earned points victory over rugged Bulgarian Nikola Stoyanov.

Until last night (Friday), the unbeaten 22-year-old has sailed calm seas as a pro. In the Bloxwich battler’s sixth outing, Stoyanov stirred the waters. It was needed.

On BCB’s bill at The Hangar, Wolverhampton, the Bulgarian added a missing piece in the jigsaw that is Ryan’s ring education.

We now know he can bite on his gumshield when the going gets tough and stay in the fray.

As trainer Pete Hickenbottom said after the final bell had sounded: “That was just what Ryan needed.”

In the end, Woolridge’s fitness proved the decisive factor. He found higher gears in the second half of the contest and  bossed the action down the stretch to take a 59-56 decision.

Hickenbottom said in the dressing room afterwards: “I thought Ryan boxed really, really well. And what I liked was the way he reacted to the cut, there was no panic.”

Woolridge, sporting the marks of battle, said: “I felt the cut in the first, I felt the blood come. As it went on, he cut down on his work and I thought that would happen. Once I’d settled, I kept to my boxing.”

Of the first two rounds when Stoyanov, whose record has now dipped to 2-3, was at his most dangerous, Ryan said: “It’s boxing, you’re going to get caught and I got tagged. He could hit.”

In Stoyanov, the prospect faced an opponent who was hungry and who came to win.

Ryan (11st 2lb 6oz) came out for the first behind a slide-rule southpaw jab, but within seconds a thin stream of blood was running down his cheek.

The sight of claret buoyed Stoyanov, who flung hooks and bulled his opponent to the ropes. It wasn’t pretty, it was effective during the early going. After two rights clattered off Woolridge’s chin in the second – the visitor’s best round of the contest – I scribbled in my notebook: “Dangerous signs for Woolridge”. He looked flustered.

Ryan showed the old fashioned cajones needed to be a champion. He fired a lovely left down the pipe in the third as Stoyanov (11st 1lb 6oz) began to feel the pace. A left uppercut inside added to the Bulgarian’s misery in the fourth and he ended the round with a purplish welt under the right eye.

The final two sessions were dominated by Woolridge, although he copped a heavy right in the dying seconds at Stoyanov attempted to stage a grand-slam finish.

I wrote in my preview before the punch-up that we’d know a lot more about Ryan’s fighting DNA when the dust had settled.

We do. Ryan proved he has the heart to match his textbook skills.