By Nate Anderson: Bantamweight Gary Davies (9-2-1, 7 KOs) stopped Matthew Edmonds (10-3, 2 KOs) in the 7th round on Friday night to capture the vacant BBBofC British bantamweight title at the York Hall, in Bethnal Green, London.
In the 7th round, Davies caught Edmonds with a big right hand, sending him torpedoing through the ropes where he hung briefly and then sank to the canvas. After Edmonds got to his feet, Davies, 26, then knocked him down twice more in the round before referee Dave Parris halted the fight at 2:37 of the round.
Davies had controlled much of the fight going into the 7th round with his super speed and power. However, in the 7th round, Edmonds went for broke, attacking Davies hard with a near suicidal attack. It worked initially as Davies was backed up by Edmonds and took a lot of shots in the opening minute of the round. Things were looking good for Edmonds when he ran into big right hand from Davies and sent to the canvas.
Just before the knockdown, Edmonds had bullied Davies to the ropes and was landing big right hands to the head. Edmonds seemed to make a mistake by rushing forward in a Ricky Hatton style attack and left himself open for a right hand from Davies, the punch knocking Edmonds into the ropes where he slid down to the canvas. Referee Dave Parris blew the next knockdown, in which Davies clearly pushed Edmonds to the canvas.
Edmonds got up immediately and tried to protest the call, but Parris was having none of it and let the call stand. Edmonds, now badly hurt, was dropped for the third time by a right hand to the head and a chopping right hand to the back of his head.
The punch barely connected, but because Edmonds was hurt and flopping around trying hard to clinch, he was unable to stay upright. In the end, he would have been dropped outright by the next couple of punches that Davies would thrown because Edmonds was too hurt and there wasn’t enough time for him to try and clinch his way out of the round.
From the first round, it was clear that Davies had too much speed and power for Edmonds as he was able to land with big shots well ahead of the slower ones from Edmonds. Using movement didn’t work for Edmonds, at least not enough to slow Davies from winning the round. On the outside, Edmonds attempted to control Davies with his jab. However, Davies showed incredibly quick feet, moving in range in an instant to land his powerful combinations.
Edmonds landed a few nice right hands in the round but he had big problems with Davies power. Davies seemed to be fighting angry at times in the round, as if he took great offense when Edmonds would land a shot. On those occasions, Davies would then hurriedly retaliate with big shots. It seemed hardly necessary because he was already dominating as it was and I couldn’t see much benefit of his extra payback.
Early in the 4th, Davies hurt Edmonds with a big right hand that caused Edmonds to try and clinch to prevent from getting hit further. In the 5th and 6th, Edmonds began to move more around the ring looking as if he was trying to keep from getting hit as often. The movement worked a little, but it also kept Edmonds from doing anything offensively. Davies easily got the better of him when Edmonds would stop for any length of time.
By the start of the 7th, Edmonds was well behind in the fight and appeared to have lost every round up to this point in the fight. It was probably for this reason Edmonds decided to go all out in the 7th and try to take Davies out. It didn’t work and Edmonds was taken out. In hindsight, Edmonds probably should have worked more on using his jab instead of trying to fight it out with Davies. I noticed that Edmonds didn’t use his jab nearly enough in the fight.
In other action on the card, former ‘Prizefighter’ welterweight champion Michael Lomax (15-1-1, 2 KOs) defeated Yoann Camonin (10-4-1, 3 KOs)by an eight-round referee’s decision. The score was 79-76. It was an odd fight because of the height of Camonin, who stood five inches taller than Lomax at an incredible 6’5″, and looked like a giant beanpole. Camonin, 27, from France, failed to utilize his height and reach advantage and found himself getting hit quite a lot from the 6’0″ Lomax.
In rounds one and two, Lomax pounded the slender Camonin with body and head shots at close range. Camonin did a poor job of trying to keep Lomax on the outside by not jabbing enough. Indeed, Lomax was able to walk right up to him and pound away without getting hit with much with anything from Camonin. In the 3rd round, Lomax was cut over the fight eye from a clash of heads.
It was bound to happen sooner or later because he had bumped heads with Camonin twice prior to that and it looked that their styles weren’t meshing. In the 4th round, Camonin began to get a little more comfortable in the ring, throwing punches while looking in another direction.
It’s the kind of thing that you typically see from fighters like Roy Jones Jr. and Floyd Mayweather Jr., but it seemed strange to see the tall, slender Camonin using it when he was being dominated so badly. It’s a style that I usually associate with a fighter being in control of a bout rather than the opposite.
At any rate, Camonin easily won the 4th round by throwing essentially all the punches in the round, because Lomax seemed concerned with his cut eye and wasn’t letting his hands go.
In rounds five through eight, Lomax put his foot back on the accelerator and controlled the remainder of the fight with combinations and hard body shots.
Undefeated featherweight prospect Ricky Owens (11-0, 4 KOs) defeated James Ancliff (6-5-1, 1 KOs) by a six-round decision. Referee Ken Curtis scored it 59-56 for Owens. The fight wasn’t close, as Owens used his speed advantage to get the better of Ancliff in every exchange. It was mostly one way traffic for Owens, who looked very impressive in winning.
Super featherweight prospect Nick MacDonald (3-1, 2 KOs) looked really good in defeating Russian journeyman Andrey Kostin (20-11,6 KOs) by a six-round decision. MacDonald, 25, a former 2003 and 2006 ABA bantamweight champion, put on arguably the best performance of the night in dominating the Russian over six rounds. MacDonald attacked Kostin hard with body shots and nice head shots. The referee scored it 60-54 for MacDonald.