Brilliant Bradley sets the GOLD standard with devastating show

FOR Bradley Goldsmith, the future glistens like precious metal after his landslide victory over former British middleweight champ Bradley Pauls.

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It wasn’t simply the win, it was the nature of the win. Let's say it as it is, Goldsmith schooled the big puncher - as reflected by the scores. It was a textbook, bull-and-matador lesson.

After the dust had settled following an absorbing ten-rounder on Queensberry’s show at St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton, Goldsmith had sealed a comprehensive victory, 99-90, 99-90 and 97-92.

Yet my straw poll of insiders before the clash failed to find an individual who felt the Coventry 27-year-old could spring an upset. The odds appeared stacked against him: Paul, a KO merchant, was coming off a career best victory over Shakiel Thompson; he'd displayed the strength to KO opponents in the last minutes of championship contests; he was fighting in his south coast stomping ground.

Goldsmith, a product of the famed Triumph amateur club, had never been ten rounds. Critics pointed to his Midlands area title stoppage loss to Troy Coleman last year and concluded what the Burntwood Hawk could do, Pauls could do better.

On paper, the prediction made sense. On canvas, Goldsmith, trained at Dominic Ingle’s Sheffield gym, made a mockery of the odds against him.

Quite simply, Bradley uncorked the perfect fight; he staged a masterclass.

Goldsmith told me with a smile: ‘‘I think the bookies had a bit of a stinker on Saturday night. I wasn’t being denied and I arrived as the unknown, left as the known. They call it an upset, but the only people upset were the ones who wrote me off beforehand.’’