By Shane Newsome: With a heavy schedule of fights on both sides of the pond its easy for a fight or a whole fight card to have been missed by a casual boxing fan recently and could be forgiven, and if this is the site you use for all you boxing news (which for a lot of people that may be the case) then its too easy to get drawn in by a bias writers opinion of a fight.
Starting in Blackpool, Lancashire, UK and the main event on this card between Brian Rose (23-1-1) and Joachim Alcine (33-4-1) here was a case of a European level fighter in Brian Rose attempting to begin to build a bridge towards world level and for this he picked a once formidable opponent in former WBA Light-Middleweight Champion Joachim Alcine, Rose acquitted himself well in a relatively uneventful (in comparison to the other fights on the night) fight and walked away with a win via a 12th round TKO. Perhaps not too impressive in comparison to Mathew Macklin’s 1st round KO of Alcine, but the future is bright for Rose as he begins his step up. also on this card Welsh Featherweight hope Lee Selby (15-1) continued his rise with a 5th round TKO victory over a previously unbeaten Australian Corey McConnell (11-1-1) in which he didn’t seem to break a sweat in retaining his Commonwealth Featherweight Title. other fights on the card included a good win for Unbeaten Scotty Cardle (11-0) in a well matched fight (Well done Eddie Hearn) over also previously unbeaten Maxi Hughes (8-1-1), Former Team GB captian Tom Stalker (3-0) continued his outclassing of opponents with and other easy win over another relative journeyman if anything again showing a lack of power not scoring a KO, lastly Callum Smith (5-0) (Younger Brother of Paul) blitzed a normally tough opponent who has gone ‘the rounds’ with some good opponents and Smith looked good in doing it hes definitely one to look out for in an already packed Super-Middleweight division.
Now To Wembley, London, UK with a triple main event card including Nathan Cleverly (26-0) and his WBO Light-Heavyweight title defense against a game yet completely outclassed on the night Robin Krasniqi (39-3), though boasting quite an impressive record the challenger really looked out of his depth at times and whenever it was need Cleverly put on the class to win every single round not only on my score card but the judges to, Cleverly now has another mandatory defense to make against experienced German Juergen Braehmer before a possible and perhaps just as winnable match-up against 48 year-old Bernard Hopkins. also on this card a hotly contested fight between lightweight prospect Liam Walsh (14-0) and Former Featherweight Champion Scott Harrison (27-3-2), though the action was fast paced to begin the older Scot began to show all his 35 years in the later rounds and the classier work came from the eventual deserved winner Walsh who has a bright future ahead of him if matched well. the third main event on the night included the Heavyweight everybody loves to hate Derek Chisora (16-4) in his first fight since being knocked out by David Haye last July Chisora looked sluggish and rather lazy for the first 6 rounds at least before picking it up and stopping his rather over matched opponent 38 year-old Argentine Hector Alfredo Avila (20-13-1), Chisora is a good, existing though sometimes lazy fighter who needs a kick up the backside and a firm hand in the right direction to really get his career back on track. also on this packed card were 24 year-old Super-Middleweight prospect Frank Buglioni (8-0) who though stopped his opponent didn’t look too impressive doing it, I can see him getting caught out as he steps up in class, and Former Team GB Featherweight Joe Murray (13-0) who is slowly but surely becoming a good professional with a career to look forward to.
Now across the pond and to Madison Square Garden, New York, USA and a battle of allies between unbeaten British heavyweight Tyson Fury (21-0) and America’s own former Cruiserweight champion Steve Cunningham (25-6), and a cruiserweight vs a heavyweight is exactly what this fight turned out to be, Fury (without his trainer and uncle Peter Fury who does so well in disciplining his fighter) was acting up for the crowd to begin this fight and was given just what his lazy defense and showboating deserved in the 2nd round, an over-hand right that parked him on his bum, though he got up from that he didn’t seem to learn straight away and it took another right in the 4th and for the ref to rightly deduct him a point for a head-butt for him to stop acting like a child, Fury finally got going in the 6th round and started applying his advantages length and weight in jabbing and leaning on his opponent and though Cunningham and his trainer Nazim Richardson were fully aware of this there was nothing they could do to overcome it and Fury slowly wore Cunningham down before delivering a heavy right to the body which all but ended the fight before a right hook put Cunningham on the canvas for the first and last time in the fight to end it. Also on the card was Tyson’s 18 year-old Cousin Hughie Fury (2-0) and his performance against American Alex Rozman (1-1) (MMA record 3-17) was a perfect example of boxer vs MMA brawler Fury completely outclassed his opponent in every way dropping him 3 times before the ref stepped in to stop the fight proving there is no room for MMA fighter in a boxing ring nor Vise Versa. young Hughie in his first two fights has looked impressive and has an exciting future ahead of him, personally i feel he is better equipped than older cousin Tyson but only time will tell.
My final write-up of the week comes from San Antonio, Texas, USA and the biggest fight on the night between Austin Trout (26-1) and Saul Alvarez (42-0-1) in what turned out to be a coming out party for the 22 year-old aptly nicknamed ‘Canelo’ (Cinnamon) who in a very impressive performance managed to not only knock his very well matched opponent down in the 7th round with one of his many right hands that banged home on the night but also looked very good in strolling to a unanimous decision both on the back foot not getting hit and on the front foot delivering punishment whenever required. Also on this card was a fight for Omar Figueroa (21-0-1) who looked superb and a force to be reckoned with in blasting out and previously unbeaten opponent in Abner Cotto (16-1) in only 1 round.
With such a good week of boxing behind up we are being spoilt as boxing fans at the moment as another great weekend is just round the corner don’t miss my build-up to next weeks fights in my next write up!
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