By Nate Anderson: Unbeaten super middleweight prospect Kenny Anderson (10-0, 7 KOs) defeated Nathan King (12-13, 1 KOs) by a 10-round decision on Friday night to win the vacant BBCofC Celtic super middleweight title at the Bellahouston Sports Centre, in Glascow, Scotland. The referee Richard James Davies scored it 96-95 for Anderson by a close margin. Anderson, 26, staggered King with a huge fight hand in the 2nd round, but was unable to put him down.
In trying to take King out by throwing a lot of punches in both the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Anderson succeeded in tiring himself out and struggled in rounds three through six as King took control of the fight. Anderson came back in rounds seven through ten to narrowly control the action and got the decision.
However, Anderson absorbed a lot of punishment from the weak-punching King, and had bad swelling under both eyes by the time the end of the fight after the 10th. Anderson got the win, but he looked very vulnerable at all time, and seemed to be troubled by King’s frequent jabs.
A bigger problem for Anderson, however, was the way he tired out so quickly in the fight. A fighter of his age should be able to fight recover their stamina after having a hard round by the next round.
Anderson, unfortunately, was gassed out for three rounds, and even when he did finally start attacking again starting in the 7th, he remained exhausted and mostly pushed with his punches. Luckily for Anderson, King had no power and was mostly limited to jabbing rather than throwing power shots.
Anderson attacked King in the 1st round, throwing slow right and left hands, missing many of them. I’m not sure if Anderson is always this slow, but he needs to work on his hand speed because he’s a lot slower than most of the top super middleweights in the division, including the top prospects.
Part of Anderson’s problems could stem from him trying to load up so much with his punches. He looked like brawler from the street, throwing big looping hooks and trying to take King out with every shot.
Anderson landed a lot of shots in the opening round, and appeared to hurt King near the end of the round when Anderson tagged him with a big right uppercut to the head. There wasn’t time for Anderson to add to the damage because the time ran out on him in the round.
In the 2nd round, Anderson staggered King with a big right hand in the final minute of the round, and then proceeded to unload on his with a flurry of shots as King leaned against the ropes trying to cover up the best he could. Anderson landed a big right a second after the bell sounded to end the round, the punch staggering King further.
Anderson continued pummeling King up against the ropes in the 3rd round, working him over with head shots. Anderson’s punches looked painfully slow, and seemed to be slowing down even more as the round progressed. In the 4th round, Anderson looked spent, both eyes glazed over, his mouth open.
King then took control over the round and jabbed Anderson silly, hitting him over and over with hard jabs. In the first minute of the round, Anderson’s nose was bloodied by a series of hard jabs from King. Anderson’s nose would continue to bleed for the remaining six rounds of the fight.
King landed well with jabs in the 5th round, swelling up both of Anderson’s eyes in the round and turning his face red. At this point, King was looking more like the unbeaten prospect rather than Anderson, and it appeared that their roles had reversed.
Anderson looked bad, and unable to deal with King’s jabs. It wasn’t as if he had to deal with a lot of different looks, though, because all King was doing for the most part was throw jabs, yet that more than what Anderson was capable of dealing with at the moment.
The 6th round was close, with Anderson landed several huge right hands to the head of King. However, King landed the more punches and continued jabbing Anderson constantly.
In round seven through ten, Anderson finally seemed to recover his stamina and began to load up with his shots once again. The three remaining rounds – 7 through 10 – remained close due to King’s good work rate with his jabs. However, Anderson landed the harder shots and looked to have won the fight by a razor this margin.
All in all, it was a poor performance from Anderson. He showed poor stamina and even poorer hand speed. He’s got a lot to work on if he wants to face better competition than he did on Friday night.
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