By Dean Parr

Last Friday night, on the undercard of Denton Vassell's enthralling Commonwealth welterweight title victory over Lee Purdy, Worthing's Alex Dilmaghani, now 5-0 (1 early), defeated sturdy veteran Johnny Greaves, 2-48 (1 KO), over four rounds.  Alex was content with how the bout went.

“I'm happy with my performance,” he declared.  “He's a tough guy who's had 50 fights, very rarely gets stopped and I just picked him apart really.  I cut him over both eyes as well.  He's a lovely guy though and I've got a lot of respect for him.”

Alex registered the 40-37 win with just two minutes to warm up.  He felt this marred his showing slightly.  “I thought it harmed my performance, but a lot of people who saw the fight thought I did OK.  I'm always a harsh critic of myself though, and I know I can do better,” he sighed.

In spite of this though, one thing in particular he did through the fight pleased him. “I was happy with how I countered him,” he beamed.  “I didn't have any southpaw sparring whatsoever before this, and I countered with a lot of jabs and hooks.  I fought a couple of southpaws in the amateurs and I took them apart, and that right hook in particular was working very well.”

Dilmaghani was also full of praise for his durable rival.  “I wasn't surprised by how tough he was,” admitted the quick southpaw.  “He's had 50 fights and he's been stopped in very few.  I knew when I signed up to fight him how tough he was, and I could have probably stopped him to the body, but to the head, the man takes great punches.  When he gets hurt as well, he knows how to slide, hold and survive really, because that's his day job.”

A natural lightweight, Dilmaghani found it a useful exercise to square off against a bigger man. He said, “I definitely think that's the case and it will help me.  If I'm out-strengthening and beating these guys, then it should be easier at a lighter weight than what I'm doing now.  He's been in as high as light middleweight before, and he said after the fight that I hurt him with crisp and sharp punches.  For him to say that was great.”

Indeed, the future looks bright for the 19-year-old, who's next outing could be as early as late May.  “I think I'm fighting next month, but I'm not sure,” he revealed.  “I'll just leave it down to the Hattons.  The Hattons are keeping me busy with lots of fights so it's all good.

“The way I'm going, I'll have nine or ten fights by the end of the year.  I want the English title next year, the British the year after.  I'll put in all the effort and do all the gym work, so hopefully I'll get the results.”