Composed Carpenter impresses in Car Park debut
John Carpenter scored victory in his first ever competitive boxing match in the Sheffield Arena Car Park on Friday night.
The Clondalkin native with no amateur or combat sports background whatsoever made a mockery of his ‘complete novice’ status with a comfortable points win on the Fightzone card in England.
The fighter some joked may look more at home fighting in a car park than a ring in a car park looked comfortable, confident, and capable as he cruised to a 40-36 whitewash win.
Granted there are things that need to be improved upon but no more than most debutants if you were to go off Friday’s display.
Indeed, Carpenter looks an exciting addition to the super middle and light heavyweight division domestically. He showed enough to have Irish fight fans predicting some entertaining fights could be made with the likes of Boxing Ireland trio Robert Burke, Kevin Cronin and Jamie Morrissey as well Taylor McGoldrick.
It's a winning debut for John Carpenter
— Boxing Tickets NI (@BoxingTicketsNI) June 4, 2021
The Dubliner with no amateur boxing experience showed plenty of potential in a points win (40-36) over Manchester's Ryan Hibbert
Congratulations on the win Mr Coffey 👏👏
🎥 @fightzonetv pic.twitter.com/MevibyWBtU
Carpenter looked composed and confident in the first round. The new to the game pro took his time trying to land the jab moving in and out of distance – and when the right hand did land it unsettled the journeyman.
The Clondalkin native forced the issue that bit more in the second round. The 26-year-old applied pressure with his feet and let his hands go with more regularity. He used a solid jab to push Hibbert back to the ropes and let the right hand go once he got there.
Hibbert held his feet more in the third and Carpenter had to show his defensive acumen on occasion but did more than enough to win the round comfortable.
The Carpenter that had been whispered about on the circuit emerged in the fourth with aggression and heavy hands been the order of the round.
The Pete Taylor trained fighter went for the volume stoppage early on and with a little more experience may have got it but before landing clean and hurting the English fighter over the final two minutes flirting with an eary night on more than one occassion.
The win see’s Carpenter move to 1-0 while Hibbert slips to 1-11.
