CHARLES ADAMU W12 (split) CARL DILKS

Albert Sosnowski predictably pasted Paolo Vidoz to win the vacant European heavyweight title but for me the real story of the last Sky Sports boxing show of 2009 was Carl Dilks losing a highly debatable split decision against Charles Adamu in their meeting for the vacant Commonwealth super middle title.

There seemed no doubt that Dilks had won this fight. He landed almost all the clean, scoring punches and at times the former soldier from Liverpool was jabbing beautifully. His corner seemed in no doubt that Dilks was well ahead. With two round to go, they wanted him simply to box his way safely home and not take any chances. “Don’t fuck this up, Carl,” his trainer, Karl Ince, implored him before the start of the 11th.

Dilks was outhustled in the 11th but, surely, won the last round, with his better-placed, better-quality punches. I thought the absolute worst he could have got was draw. Then came the decision: two scores in favour of Adamu, 116-113 and 115-114, and one in favour of Dilks, 115-113. One point on one card for a draw — and even that would have been hard on Dilks.

Sure, there were rounds when Dilks wasn’t doing a lot, but Adamu was flailing like a novice and missing widely.

The veteran from Ghana was also doing quite a bit of slapping — for which he was cautioned in the 10th round — and in theory punches that land with the inside of the glove shouldn’t be counted as scoring blows.

In online wagering, Dilks was -3300 in the 11th round, after opening as a slight underdog. This means that players with live betting available to them had been piling in on Dilks by the later rounds, so clearly did he seem to be winning.

“I am absolutely amazed by that,” exclaimed Ian Darke, the veteran Sky Sports commentator, when the decision was announced. You and me both, Ian.