Mehran Khan wins last minute fight

Mehran Khan

Mehran Khan beat Sean Doran having answered a phone call desperately seeking his assistance in replacing an injured boxer to represent Greater Manchester in a charity event against an Irish team from Dublin that very same night.

Khan, 17, was training at Hamer Amateur Boxing Club and Community Fitness Centre at 7:30pm on Friday 23 October when the call desperately seeking his assistance came in.

Khan's response to the phone call was a definitive yes and he and his Hamer team made a quick dash from the Hamer gym in Rochdale to Lancashire County Cricket Club on Talbot Road, Manchester.

The boxing was already under way when Khan arrived at the venue and the ABA officials asked him to weigh-in before seeing the doctor at the interval.

Khan stepped into the ring second after the break and in the opposite corner stood Sean Doran of St Saviour's ABC.

The bell rang and both boxers came out looking to land probing jabs while constantly on the defence.

After a slow start, Doran began to push forward and take the fight to Khan.

Khan used his jab to keep Doran at bay but when his back touched the ropes he stayed there which allowed the Irishman to unload quick punches. A lot of the punches failed to connect but it gave the impression that Doran was willing to trade.

Doran came out more determined in the second round, while Khan tried to meet him with his solid right hand. As the Irishman came in, Khan caught him with a tremendous left hook that shook the Irishman down to his toes.

Khan controlled the contest when in the centre of the ring, throwing out his long jab but when he stepped onto the ropes Doran was quick to offload fast punches to impress the judges.

Both boxers showed signs of tiredness in the third and last round. However, Khan continued with his jab while stepping forward to land his right hand and Doran was equal to the task as he continued to exchange fast hands.

The contest was a close one, but went to Khan by split-decision; the Hamer coaching team said they would have had no complaints if the verdict had gone the other way, such was the closeness of the contest.

Hamer coach Alan Bacon said: "We received the last minute phone call while Mehran was working on sprints and although he showed signs of tiredness I was impressed that he took to contest so late in the day. It shows great commitment from this club that we can drop what we are doing and take a fight at the last minute. If it were down to us we would have our youngsters boxing every weekend."