Scott Welch v James Oyebola 1 & 2

[Autobarn]

After Whyte-Parker & Chisora-Takam, and Whyte-Chisora, I was trying to think up up other exciting fights and rivalries provided by British heavyweights. We seem to be in an especially good era.

Going back the late Oyebola and Welch had a good up-and-downer on the undercard to a big show in America.

Then they came back for a rematch in the UK, with Welch avenging his 5th round defeat by stopping his man in 10.

I have really hazy memories of the 2nd fight. I saw a allegedly VHS called Knockouts of ‘96 and I’m sure the highlights portrayed a dramatic tussle, with both men badly hurt. Yet, a couple of weeks ago I saw YouTube highlights of Welch hammering his man apparently all the way.

Anyone remember much about the second fight?

[deadpan]

I had that exact same experience the other week. Weird.

[Tuan_Jim]

First fight was great fun (Lewis Jackson undercard), rematch was an ugly maul, typical Welch type fight. Have em on tape somewhere.

[rd350lc]

Welch was featured on a house renovation program I saw a couple of years ago .

I had to do a double take when I first saw him , didn't look any different from his fighting years .

[Autobarn]

First fight was great fun (Lewis Jackson undercard), rematch was an ugly maul, typical Welch type fight. Have em on tape somewhere.

Welch wasn’t wobbled in this second fight?

[TheLeprechaun]

Welch lost a bit of my respect as a trainer when he was going on about Webb being the next big thing. I know you should talk up your fighter but Webb is tremendously poor as we saw against Allen. You'd think he was the second coming of Ali listening to Welch pre fight

[Tuan_Jim]

First fight was great fun (Lewis Jackson undercard), rematch was an ugly maul, typical Welch type fight. Have em on tape somewhere.

Welch wasn’t wobbled in this second fight?

I don't remember Welch being hurt at all in thr second fight, I think he stayed on Oyebola's chest all night. I may be wrong though. Will check for you tomorrow.

[Autobarn]

Cheers,

[jameswilson]

Welch lost a bit of my respect as a trainer when he was going on about Webb being the next big thing. I know you should talk up your fighter but Webb is tremendously poor as we saw against Allen. You'd think he was the second coming of Ali listening to Welch pre fight

Or the first coming of Hughie ‘Shades of Ali’ Fury!

[magnus]

For some reason Glyn Leach's review of their first fight - "sometimes two carthorses can have an entertaining race" (or words to that effect) - has always stuck in my head. Often true where heavyweights are concerned.

[Tuan_Jim]

Cheers,

The tape would take too much digging put here's the BM account of the action for you and anyone else interested in this cruelly forgotten rematch:








Also, in the same issue, the pivotal moment Shannon Briggs learned that an old washed up heavyweight can get a big fight simply by making himself into a degrading freak show:

[Noxy]

Thanks for that Jim, it brings back memories. I‘ve always remembered that line about Hamed giggling.

[Tuan_Jim]

I was surprised to read about how Welch's ambition seemed limited to the domestic scene. Explains why he was so spooked by that weird world title fight with Akinwande in the US.

Think he was once scheduled to meet Mavrovic for the European title. Fight didn't happen for some reason. I don't think it would have turned out well for Scott.

[Autobarn]

Many thanks for putting that up.

My memory is correct and it was a dramatic slugfest. I knew I’d seen Oyebola hurt Welch in a Sports Network ring.

Someone basically put all the Welch highlights up on a quite long YouTube video, which was highly misleading and unfortunate.

[orbtastic]

Highlights for the 2nd fight are on youtube. Looks mostly one way though, I don't remember it being particularly memorable, more that Olebola kinda slowly had the fight punched out of him.

I think Welch suffered from lack of self belief, there's a vid of him being interviewed looking back on his career, he's clearly embarrassed to be even talking about it and basically says that he didn't expect to amount to anything, even as an amateur.

He did nothing in the Akinwande fight but he admits that he just got outboxed and couldn't touch him.