The UK Beat Report (10/14/09)

by Dafs117

Welcome to the second UK Beat Report, a monthly wrap-up of the fight scene in the United Kingdom.

The month was marred by the death of Darren Sutherland (4-0, 4 KOs). The Irish bronze medallist was found dead by his promoter Frank Maloney in the boxer’s flat. Sutherland was a talented fighter and definitely one for the future.

September started off with a bang as a featherweight duel took place in the north-east. There was a decent crowd at Middlesbrough watching the highly anticipated featherweight rematch between John Simpson (20-6, 8 KOs) and Paul Truscott (13-2, 1 KO). Simpson stopped Truscott early on in the 10th on cuts.

Tyson Fury (9-0, 7 KOs) scored a controversial points victory over John McDermott (25-6, 16 KO) at Brentwood Centre, Essex. The contest was for ‘Big Bad’ John’s English Heavyweight Title. Terry O’Connor scored the fight 98-92 to Fury, while others at ringside had it 4 rounds to McDermott. The BBBofC have announced that they want the rematch to take place in the next 90 days. Another lanky heavyweight, Tom Dallas (7-0, 5 KOs) stopped Hungarian journeyman Mihaly Nemet (12-16-1, 4 KOs) in superb style in the first round. Dallas, who’s 6’6’’ and weighed only 229 lbs, knocked Nemet down 3 times and the bout was stopped 01:14 in Dallas’ quickest stoppage yet. Ashley Sexton (8-0, 4 KOs) also continued his rise with a first round technical knockout victory over Darli Gonvalves Pires (17-8-1, 8 KOs).

Clinton Woods has announced his retirement from the sport. He recently dropped a unanimous decision to Tavoris Cloud (20-0, 18 KOs) for the vacant IBF light-heavyweight title. Junior Witter (37-3-2, 22 KOs) will carry on despite calls for him to retire. He will move up to challenge at welterweight.

Ricky Hatton’s first promotion night couldn’t have gone any better with Matthew Macklin (25-2, 18 KOs) scored a stunning first round knockout over world level Finnish fighter Amin Asikainen (26-3, 17 KOs). Featherweight prospect Joe Murray (4-0, 1 KO) continued his rise through the domestic scene with a first round stoppage victory over Delroy Spencer (11-88-3, 1 KO).

Bernard Dunne’s (28-2, 15 KOs) reign of the WBA title in a very deep junior featherweight division and his first defence didn’t last more than three rounds against Thai Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym (39-1, 28 KOs). He was in line for a major pay-day against Celestino Caballero (33-2, 23 KOs). Tyson Fury (9-0, 7 KOs) fought to a points victory on the undercard.

David Haye (22-1, 21 KOs) was ringside at McDermott-Fury and said that his preparation for his upcoming title tilt against Nikolay Valuev (50-1, 34 KOs) is going according to plan. Adam Booth, Haye’s trainer, said it was likely that Haye would weigh around 230 lbs in the Valuev fight on the 7th of November in Germany. Haye is looking to spar with Tyson Fury ahead of his fight at Nurenburg. The long-awaited rematch between Sam Sexton (12-1, 5 KOs) and Martin Rogan (12-1, 6 KOs) has been postponed due to a back injury suffered by challenger Rogan. Their first bout got stopped by a mouse under Rogan’s left eye when it appeared that Sexton was out on his feet. The bout will take place at the Odyssey Arena, Belfast on the 6th of November.

Nathan Cleverly (18-0, 8 KOs) headlined at York Hall against lanky Englishman Courtney Fry (13-3, 5 KOs) on October the 9th. He won by 8th round stoppage over former Commenwealth Games champion Fry. Cleverly has been nominated to fight for the vacant European light heavyweight title against Antonio Brancalion and the fight could take place on December the 5th. On the undercard, Derek Chisora (11-0, 6 KOs) fought for the first time since his biting ban last March and won by thir round stoppage. The Heavyweight Prizefighter III draw was made by a certain ‘Iron’ Mike Tyson. Mike Holden (10-9-1, 6 KOs) was pulled out of the competition as he was floored by Tomas Mzarek (4-22-5, 3 KOs) in the third round of their scheduled four round bout. Michael Sprott (31-14, 16 KOs) also pulled out after the tragic death of his sister.

Audley Harrison (26-4, 19 KOs) won the tournament with a stoppage victory over Irish outsider Coleman Barrett (10-1, 2 KOs). Harrison still believes he could get a world title-shot next year with the help of Barry Hearn. Danny Williams (41-8, 31 KOs) was stunned by Carl Baker (9-4, 6 KOs) and will probably retire by the time of the next beat report.

The dream domestic lightweight contenst between John Murray (28-0, 16 KOs) and Jon Thaxton (34-11, 19 KOs) took place at Altincham, Chester on October 3. The bout was for the vacant British lightweight strap after Murray failed to make the weight by 1.5 oz in his previous bout against Scott Lawton (26-5-1, 5 KOs). John Murray won by fourth round stoppage and after the fight, Jon Thaxton retired from the sport.

Esham Pickering (34-9, 13 KOs) was defeated in an European featherweight title bout against Oleg Yefimovych (17-1, 11 KOs) by third round knockout. He has admitted that he will not hang up his gloves yet.

Carl Froch (25-0, 20 KOs) will begin his quest for super middleweight domination with a fight against Andre Dirrell (19-0, 12 KOs) in a battle of skill versus will at Nottingham. The fight is on the 17th of October for Froch’s WBC super middleweight title.

Jason Booth (33-5, 13 KOs) will fight at Sunderland on October 16 against Michael Hunter (29-1-1, 13 KOs) and is hoping for an impressive performance to land a title shot at 122 lbs. A bout with Bernard Dunne (28-2, 15 KOs) or Rendall Munroe (19-1, 8 KOs) could be next.

If Jamie Moore, (32-3, 23 KOs) beats Ryan Rhodes (42-4, 28 KOs) in an all British light-middleweight contest, he would get a shot at either Sergio Gabriel Martinez (44-1-2, 24 KOs) or Cory Spinks (37-5, 11 KOs). Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. (40-0-1, 30 KOs) is also a name branded about. Gary Davis (9-2-1, 7 KOs) will defend his Lonsdale belt against slickster Ian Napa (18-7, 1 KO).

The next report will be at the end of October and will concentrate on David Haye’s heavyweight challenge against giant Nikolay Valuev. The Hayemaker could be set to take the British heavyweight lead from Lennox Lewis (41-2-1, 32 KOs) the only modern day heavyweight champion to have beaten every opponent he has ever faced.

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Dunne Defeat Makes Ugly Viewing

by Dafs117

Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym KO 3 Bernard Dunne

For a guy that doesn’t like to travel, Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, 122 lbs, Sakon Nakhon, Thailand, looked like Alan Whicker last Saturday as he defeated Ireland’s only titlist to win the WBA Junior Featherweight title. As the noisy home crowd of Bernard Dunne, 121 lbs, Dublin, Ireland, were praying for another jaw-dropping contest reminiscent to the Irish brawler’s fight of the year contender victory against Panamanian Ricardo Cordoba last March, what they were about to witness was a quality if rugged performance from the all action Thai fighter.

Before I start with the fight report, the whole card was atrocious. Everything wasn’t ‘Hunky Dory’ as the card suggested. It was full of mismatches that saw heavyweight sensation Tyson Fury beat Tomasz Mzarek with one hand for 6 rounds and still giving the Czech journeyman a beating. This main event however, left a sour taste as referee Jean-Louis Legland refused to stop the contest after several opportunities.

Dunne started the bout counter-jabbing his slower opponent, but he never looked comfortable under the relentless pressure from Poonsawat. In the third round, the Thai fighter stepped up a gear and pushed Dunne to his limits. Dunne has always had a suspect chin since his 60 second knockout defeat to Spaniard, Kiko Martinez. It suggested to me that he punched himself out as he threw countless four-punch combinations to keep Poonsawat off balance. He looked tired as a left hook grazed his ear and he fell face first on to the canvas. There was about a minute and a half left of the first round and many officials would have stopped the contest right there and now. He looked senseless. Dunne got back up and looked more than a bit dazed but Legland allowed him to battle on.

The pressure continued as the challenger teed off with countless one-two combinations that found their mark consistently. Dunne’s defence, or lack of it, meant that his face was marked up. He had a cut over his left eye and the Irishman landed a solid left hook that wobbled his opponent. But it was to no avail, as a crispier left hook landed on the champion’s whiskers that saw him wobble for 5 seconds and after no evidence of a punch landing, Dunne fell to the canvas with half a minute left. At this point, Dunne was out. He wasn’t in the room and looked like he had just been on the Mari Joanna as his eyes were definitely not in the room. Bernard had a blood nose and his constant nodding meant that the referee allowed him to carry on.

Poonsawat didn’t even need to land a punch as Dunne fell to the floor for the third time in the round. No clean punch had been landed since the second knockdown but the strength of the Thai fighter, that was rumoured to be weighing no less than a 132 lbs on fight night, was enough to topple Dunne to the canvas for one final time. Dunne’s corner quickly threw in the towel and ran into the ring to save their fighter any more punishment. As the colourful gum-shield was pulled out, Poonsawat celebrated winning an alphabet title that could set up a major pay-day against Celestino Caballero, by bowing to every corner in the arena.

The former champion was on the floor for several minutes, being tended to by his trainers and ringside doctors. He required oxygen and his speech was more than a little slurred as he spoke to the Irish version of Max Kellerman.

Members of the crowd and the press were imploring the referee to act, but he carried on counting. It was disgraceful watching the referee not realizing that Dunne’s legs had been taken from under him.

He should take a leaf out of Luigi Muratore’s book. The Italian referee stopped Matthew Macklin’s battering of Finnish superstar Amin Asikainen after judging that Asikianen was in no fit condition to carry on. It was the perfect call. Some called the stoppage premature, but it just stopped the inevitable, as the stronger Brit would have carried on punching the living out of Asikainen.

When does a referee stop a fight? When the fighter doesn’t look like he has the ability to fight himself out of a hole despite not being hurt? When the fighter shows true heart and battles on despite being thoroughly out-classed? The perfect stoppage is when the fighter is hurt and doesn’t want to be there but it’s difficult to get the balance spot on.

This is another controversial subject in the sweet science, but hopefully officials will learn from Legland’s mistakes. The biggest problem is that mistakes like that could leave a horrific mark on the sport. Hopefully, less controversial stoppages can help move the sport forward.

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