BEN Stewart of Penarth Amateur Boxing Club boxed Nathen Howell ANA ABC at a match on December 4.

Coach Neil Munn had deliberately stepped Ben up in class with Howells having more wins on his record than Ben had fights. This was done as Ben is a good boxer and has proved this through his sparring.

Ben spars with champions all the time and holds his own. At times he even gets the better of the exchanges.

Ben has only had 10 fights and lost a few of them, this is mainly down to him coming down to the level of his opponent and not keeping his high standard.

The stage was set up for Ben to step up in class. Ben was to fight Howell on his own show at Cwmbach Legion Aberdare and was last on the bill.

Howell is a capable boxer and likes to move around, so coach Neil Munn told Ben that he had to keep the pressure on with his powerful jab and cutting the ring down to make it smaller. Ben did this brilliantly and was taking Howells head off with his jab. Ben won the first round comfortably.

After the first round Ben was told to keep doing the same thing but needed to use more big right hands, so the bell sounded and 20 seconds later Howells was on his back after being hit with a right hand. Ben had never experienced this before and was told to keep calm.

Howell got up at the count of eight and was fine to carry on and showed his experience by pulling Ben in and not letting him work. Forty seconds went by and Howells had cleared his head and the boxing went back to where they were before with Ben dominating calmly with his jab.

Neil kept shouting for Ben to keep looking for the right hand. Then with 20 seconds to go Ben let a right hand go and Howells went down face first, everyone in the hall was surprised when Howell got up at eight and looked ok. The referee told them to carry on and again Howells, showing his experience, tied Ben up until the bell went.

In the break, the coach was positive that Ben could take Howells out in the next round but he also needed to keep calm.

The bell went and Howells came straight out and met fire with fire and got through the last round with Ben still winning. Ben won by an unanimous decision.

Ben was told after the fight that this is the standard he should now be fighting at as it brings the best out in him.

Neil believes if he worked to that he could win an open Welsh title, but he has to keep going as he has only had 10 fights.