By Nate Anderson: BBofC British cruiserweight champion Rob Norton (31-4-1, 19 KOs) successfully defended his title on Friday night defeating former “Prize Fighter” heavyweight finalist David Dolan (11-2, 4 KOs) by a 12-round unanimous decision at the Aston Events Centre, in Birmingham, West Midlands. The bout saw both fighters down, with Norton being knocked down three times and Dolan twice.
Dolan, however, faded in the later in the fight, giving away the 10th through 12th rounds to the hard-working Norton. In the 6th and 11th, Norton knocked Dolan down with glancing blows, neither of which seemed legitimate to me. The final judges’ scores were 114-111, 116-109 and 115-110.
The crafty Norton, 37, controlled the first round with right hands, nailing Dolan when he would come in close trying to land his bigger shots. The southpaw Norton held his right hand low most of the time, often keeping both hands down and outstretched to the sides as if inviting Dolan to try and land a shot. Focusing mostly on his reflexes to get out of the way of Dolan’s big shots, Norton did a good job defensively in the 1st round to avoid getting hit.
At the same time, he nailed Dolan often with right hands as he was coming in close. However, Norton received a warning – the first of many – from the referee for holding in the round.
Norton controlled the 2nd round, defeating Norton’s chicken stance with hard right straight right hands to the head. Norton was again warned for holding by the referee, who looked frustrated with him. Offensively, Norton did next to nothing in the round and was more focused in trying to dodge Dolan’s powerful shots.
In the 3rd round, Norton controlled the action though much of the round, hitting Dolan with fast right hands as Dolan would come at him to try and land. While holding onto Dolan, the crafty Norton landed a hard left uppercut to the head early in the round. The referee missed the foul, however.
In the last minute of the round, Dolan landed several hard right hands to the head of Norton. The punches were made easier by the fact that Norton had both arms outstretched to the sides and seemed to be daring Dolan to hit him. It looks as if Norton misjudged the speed of Dolan’s punches, because he was hit repeatedly by the same right hand in the last minute, yet Norton continued to foolishly keep his hands out to the sides instead of covering up properly.
In the 4th, Dolan once again took advantage of Norton fighting with his hands out to the sides, when he tagged Norton with a hard right hand in the opening seconds of the round, sending Norton crashing to the canvas. Norton got up looking surprised, but after charging Dolan and clinching him, Norton was staggered moments later by a hard right hand from Dolan.
Norton fought back gamely, landing some nice uppercuts, jabs and clinching often. Just when it appeared that Norton was in the process of making the round an even one, Dolan dropped him for the second time with seconds to go in the round, hitting him with a hard left to the head. This time, Norton staggered to his feet and looked to be in bad shape as he walked back to his corner after the round ended.
The 5th round was very close. While Norton landed the more numerous shots, Dolan landed the harder, more telling punches in the round, seemingly getting the better of Norton in their exchanges. Norton bounced continuously on his toes and succeeded in catching Dolan several times as he was coming in to land a punch, but he had problems with Dolan’s bigger shots.
Norton knocked Dolan down with a cuffing right hand shot in the final seconds of the 6th round. The punch appeared to be more of a shove than an actual punch, but it had the effect of knocking Dolan down into the ropes and the referee appeared to miss the call. It’s too bad for Dolan, because he had dominated the most of the round, landing some nice right hands before the knockdown.
In the 7th round, Dolan appeared to play it safe, rarely attacking Norton and content to stay on the outside. In hindsight, it was the wrong thing to do because it essentially gave the round to Norton. Dolan, who had been the stalker the entire fight, fought on the run, back peddling most of the round as Norton now was the attacker.
Dolan came back in the 8th round, knocking Norton down with a big right hand at the bell. Norton seemed to relax in the final seconds, and wasn’t prepared for the big right hand from Dolan at the bell. Norton got up looking mad at himself for having lost concentration. Dolan also fought well in the 9th, hitting Norton with straight right hands and taking advantage of Norton’s wide open defense.
In the 10th through 12th rounds, Norton outworked Dolan, staying busy and hitting him often with left hands. In the 11th round, Norton knocked Dolan down with a left to the head early in the round. In the last round, Dolan attacked hard but Norton was more clever and continued hitting him with left hands and doing a good job of avoiding Dolan’s rights.