WARRINGTON boxer Casey Brown scored a big win last weekend as he defeated Commonwealth Youth Games silver medallist Matthew Rennie in Liverpool.

The Phoenix Fire fighter boxed brilliantly against a more celebrated opponent, unleashing some sharp combinations to take the three-round contest on a split decision.

After taking the fight at short notice due to Rennie’s opponent pulling out three days before the fight, the 17-year-old welterweight put in an excellent performance and gave himself a big confidence boost ahead of his next fight in a week’s time.

In what was a cagey opening round, Rennie had traps set that would give him the advantage but Brown kept his composure superbly and didn’t fall into any of them.

If anything, Brown landed the clearer scoring shots and it was anyone’s fight going into the second round.

More of the same followed, with both fighters trying to outfox each other and making the judges’ task of scoring the fight a truly unenviable task.

The third and final round saw both fighters come out of their shell, with Rennie starting the stronger by scoring four clean scoring shots in the first 30 seconds.

However, Brown was not deterred and roared back with four separate bursts of three scoring shots, with one particular left-hook knocking Rennie’s mouth guard out of the ring.

When the action resumed, Brown controlled the centre of the ring and kept his defence tight, with the judges seeing enough to award him a split decision victory.

Brown boxes again against Michael Jobson of Wearside ABC Sunderland at the next Phoenix Fire home event on Friday April 15th at the Orford Jubilee Community Hub.