Young tips put Kevin on course

British Masters champion McMillan had dumped Paisley fighter McIntyre twice on the canvas with blistering, power-packed body shots in the first round and seemed on his way to victory over his fellow Scot, who was forced to take two long counts of eight from the referee.

However, former British champion McIntyre stormed back to outpoint his opponent 95-94 and stun the large ringside crowd.

Young, a former Gilmerton club colleague of McMillan, but who was supporting McIntrye at his ring corner, claimed: “I beat McMillan for the Scottish welterweight title a couple of years ago and I told McIntyre ‘When you fight McMillan, you don’t fight fire with fire.

“McMillan always wants to blow opponents away in the early rounds but he can’t handle boxers who jab and move and refuse to trade punches with him. That’s exactly what McIntrye did after that horrific first round.”

Even McMillan’s coach Terry McCormack conceded: “You have to hand it to McIntyre. After Gary dumped him on the deck twice in round one I thought we had the fight in the bag, but McIntyre showed why he’s a former British champion by taking the play away from Gary.

“I told McMillan not to go looking continually for the knockout after round two as McIntrye would dominate him with his right jab if he kept charging forward looking for a knockout, which is exactly what happened from the third round onwards, although, given that McIntyre only won by a single round, I thought the decision could have gone either way.”

Meanwhile, there was no room for any doubt about show promoter Alex Arthur’s superb fourth-round stoppage win over gutsy Georgian Aleksander Vakhtangashvili.

Arthur’s crushing left hooks to the body and chin forced Vakhtangashvili to take two counts of eight before the referee stopped the bout.

The writing was on the wall in the previous third round when Arthur dropped Vakhtangashvili in the Georgian’s own ring corner with his trademark vicious left hooks to the body.

Little wonder that Arthur’s coach Peter Harrison claimed: “Those left hooks to body were vintage Arthur – the kind of punches he used to deliver back when I last coached him between 2000-2002.”

Capital super-middleweight Kenny Anderson was in a similar impressively destructive mood as he flattened Sheffield opponent Lee Duncan with a scything right hand to the jaw, which left the Englishman out for the full count 48 seconds into the fourth round, a massive blow that left the sorely stricken Duncan needing medical aid before being allowed to leave the ring.

However, for the first three rounds, Duncan’s hit-and-run tactics looked as though Anderson might be in for a long, frustrating, night.

But Anderson revealed post-fight: “My corner team and I knew exactly what Duncan’s tactics would be – he was a typical Sheffield hit and run-type boxer. I’ve fought and beat three of them before earlier in my career, I knew I’d catch up with him in the end.”

Having showed his ruthless side in the ring, Anderson then revealed a kinder side to his nature, saying: “I’m really grateful to Clovenstone club amateur light-heavyweight Pieyam Khosrowpour, for giving me some hard sparring ahead for this fight at his Wester Hailes gym, so I’m having him down in my Manchester gym to train with me next week.”

Iranian amateur prospect Khosrowpour responded: “I’m boxing on the Edinburgh v London amateur international bill in Princes Street Gardens on September 9 so my time with Kenny Anderson in his gym will sharpen me up.”

Two other Capital boxers, lightweight Jason Hastie and middleweight John McCallum both notched up points wins on Saturday night’s undercard.

Hastie never lost a round against awkward London southpaw Johny Greaves, while McCallum also won all six rounds against tough Brighton survivor Ian Jackson.