Last Minute Opponents Ruin Promising Card: GBM 'A New Dawn' Review
Three Title fights lost in the build-up to the GBM Sports card named A New Dawn, left little in the way of competition on what could have been Issy Asif's best card to date.
Image: Sam Hill
The Changes
The Canon Medical Arena was set to host an ambitious set of title fights for GBM's first card of 2025, with Tysie Gallagher putting up her British, Commonwealth and WBO Global belts against Ebonie Jones, and Shakan Pitters getting his shot at the EBU European Light Heavyweight Champion Daniel Dos Santos. Add to that WBO Global and IBF European Middleweight Champion Shakiel Thompson and you have what should be a recipe for success.
Whilst the female Commonwealth fight was lost a number of weeks prior to the fight night, unfortunately for GBM, Dos Santos failed a brain scan in fight week, meaning he vacated the title, and the opponent lined up to replace him failed to make weight for the fight. This meant Shakan Pitters remained on the card but in a six-round 'gimme' fight.
Then with Shakiel Thompson facing Argentinian David Benitez, the card relied on a journeyman giving one of their prospects a game test in order to generate any remotely competitive fights. This is an important reminder as to why an undercard cannot be made entirely of Prospect vs Journeyman matchups.
The Card
Donte Dixon (8-0) opened the night in a four-rounder at a confusing Super-Welterweight division looking to have every bit of 570+ days of ring rust in his long-term layoff but got the job done comfortably across all four rounds.
Reece Mould (20-3) made his way to the ring next as he looks to return back to confidence following a shock round-one knockout loss against Ryan Walsh last September. Mould took all but one of the six scheduled rounds at Welterweight against his opponent Stefan Vincent (2-25) whose Leprechaun-led walkout was the highlight of the otherwise flat fight.
One more four-round fight followed before the best portion of the night, in the form of Super-Featherweight fighter Nohman Hussain (6-0), who once again took a comfortable victory in a learning fight. A theme of much of the night.
As mentioned, this is where the card entered its strongest segment, with fan-favourite 'Farmer Boy' Ed Hardy (3-0) getting the crowd on their feet with this presence and then providing a 2nd round finish to repay the support. The Sunny Edwards managed Featherweight revealed to me via The Puncher's Chance, that he had spent the Friday morning at work on the farm, he didn't look at all fatigued by this, however, with a fast knockdown in the first, then a strong finish in the 2nd with a barrage of lead left hooks one after the other.
Muscle-clad Super Middleweight Taz Nadeem (5-0) went one further than the Farmer Boy, picking himself an impressive third 1st round knockout, simply looking far too powerful for his opponent Jaskirat Singh (5-3-1). Nadeem delivered a collection of vicious hooks that put his opponent on the floor once before a second knockdown ended the fight.
Shakan Pitters (20-2) was up next, and the long-armed Light Heavyweight took out all his frustration with the double cancellation onto his opponent, picking up a strong finish in the second round. With his late father's name on his fight kit, the night should have a much more special one for Pitters, but a big year should still follow for the 6'6 fighter.
The nominal main event followed with Shakiel Thompson (14-0) picking up a finish in the fourth, a stoppage that was likely only so late due to some impressive amateur dramatics from his Argentinian opponent. First, the longest rendition of the 'Ref I have been hit low' routine involving multiple returns to his feet and then dropping to the floor in 'agony', followed by a 'ref that was back of the head' routine after something that was at most a light push, Benitez looked to draw out the fight but impressive body shots concluded an otherwise comical bout.
With the TV stream coming to an end, and the venue emptying somewhat, after these bouts, the next four fights were more four-rounders. Meaning that Reece Mould's fight was the only one to go beyond four. Lewis Booth (16-1) was up next and came back well after his loss to the impressive Constantin Ursu last time out to pick up a win.
Naphtali Nembhard (5-0), Calvin Moyo (1-0) and Ibrahim Kola (1-0) all followed with comfortable but otherwise unassuming wins over their respective opponents, winning all four rounds.
The Takeaways
The main takeaways from the night would be that many of GBM's top prospects got a solid runout to start off the year, and no one fell victim to an upset from the away corner. Ed Hardy and Taz Nadeem both come away from the night with their stocks further risen, and with their position as fan entertainers solidified as the chief providers of entertainment.
Shakiel Thompson will take the fight as a tune-up for whatever big things are to come up for him in 2025. Thompson admitted he accepted the offer of an IBF and WBO World Title fight against Janibek Alimkhanuly, with his team deeming the money not enough for him and therefore it is perhaps of merit to fight for the now vacant British Title that Denzel Bentley has left behind in search of a World Title.
Shakan Pitters will presumably still be keen to fight for the EBU European fight, and promoter Issy Asif is equally keen to get a fight of that grandeur on one of his cards. Pitters spent 498 days out of the ring prior to Friday and therefore a quick and painless runout might not be the worst idea for him.
The Awards
Fight of the Night: Reece Mould vs efan Vincent
Performance of the Night: Taz Nadeem
Upset of the Night: N/A
Special Mentions: Edward Hardy for his impressive boxing performance and David Benitez for his unimpressive acting performance.