Smith Stops Renda

By Boxing News - 03/10/2008 - Comments

By Nick Adams: Undefeated middleweight prospect Paul Smith (23-0, 13 KOs) TKO’d Cello Renda (14-6-1, 9 KOs) in the 6th round to win the vacant BBBofC English middleweight title on Saturday night on the undercard of the cruiserweight unification bout between David Haye and Enzo Maccarinelli at the O2 Arena (Millenium Dome), in Greenwich, London. Smith, 25, who previously fought on The Contender reality TV series and is trained by Buddy McGirt, hurt Renda with a big right hand in the sixth and then landed a flurry of punches, causing the referee Marcus McDonnell to step in and halt the bout with Renda defenseless against the ropes.

Smith, however, looked anything like a champion in most of the fight as Renda, 22, controlled most of the bout up until the knockout. Indeed, Renda, was leading on my scorecard 4 rounds to 1 at the time of the stoppage. If no one had pointed out who Smith was ahead of time, I would have assumed that Renda was actually Smith, the one whom is considered to be a potential champion some day for a major title, in that Renda looked very impressive with his combination punching to the head. Whereas, Smith appeared very average and quite tentative as he was taking a methodical beating from Renda.

Renda did most of the punching in rounds one and two, as he frequently hit Smith with left-right combinations to the head.. In between rounds, Buddy McGirt attempted to motivate Smith into atacking Renda, but it did little good because he continued to back up when attacked by Renda. He did land several good right hands in the 2nd round, one of which bloodied Renda’s nose.

In rounds three through five, Renda was all over Smith, throwing almost non-stop punches to the head and body and making him look really bad. I could see that Smith wanted to get his own offense started, but he was accustomed to a slower, more deliberate style of fighting and not the all out war that Renda was bringing to him.

In between the fifth and sixth rounds, McGirt finally got through to Smith, telling him to attack Renda. This is exactly what Smith did at the start of the sixth round, as he immediately attacked Renda and backed him up to the ropes. Renda appeared somewhat shocked in that Smith seemed a completely different fighter than he had in the previous rounds. Smith backed Renda up to the ropes where he then connected with a big right hand that hurt Renda.

Smith followed with a blizzard of punches as Renda futilely attempted to cover up. Seeing that Renda was badly hurt, the referee Marcus McDonnell stepped in and stopped the bout before Renda could get further hurt.



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