Gavin stops Vassell in 7th round stoppage

By Boxing News - 06/28/2013 - Comments

By Scott Gilfoid: Unbeaten welterweight contender Frankie Gavin (16-0, 12 KO’s) stopped previously undefeated Denton Vassell (20-1, 10 KO’s) in the 7th round on Saturday night at the Olympia in Liverpool, UK. The fight was halted after the 7th round after the ringside doctor’s advice because of a jaw problem with the 28-year-old Vassell.

Gavin, 27, landed the harder and cleaner landing shots throughout the fight, and he was able to foil a lot of Vassell’s attacks by moving after throwing his shots. Vassell looked sluggish for the most part, and weaker than I had ever seen him before.

I was wondering if he had somehow over-trained or drained himself for the fight because the power, energy and quickness just weren’t there tonight. Despite Gavin’s constant movement, Vassell was able to land well to the body, but like I said, he was painfully weak and slow.

The fight started off bad for Vassell with him getting constantly drilled in the head by Gavin in the first three rounds, and it got steadily worse as the fight moved into 5th, 6th and 7th rounds. Vassell would have been stopped outright even if he hadn’t suffered the jaw injury because he was getting hit too much and he didn’t have the kind of power necessary to earn Gavin’s respect.

It was a decent win for Gavin, but I didn’t come away from the fight seeing him as a threat to the top contenders in the 147 lb. division and CERTAINLY not a threat to any of the champions. Gavin just looked like a decent bottom dweller contender, nothing more, nothing less.

I think Gavin’s a good gatekeeper type fighter with an inflated record, but let’s not get things twisted; if you throw Gavin in the ring with someone like Adrien Broner or Marcos Maidana, he’s going to get totally ripped apart and stopped in short order. Gavin is a good fringe contender, but he’s not someone that can compete with the best in the division from what I see of him.



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