By Sean McDaniel: In some cases the better fighter doesn’t end up winning. That was never truer than tonight when Commonwealth heavyweight champion Martin Rogan (12-1, 6 KOs) was stopped in the 8th round by his 24-year-old English challenger Sam Sexton (12-1, 5 KOs) at the Odyssey Arena, in Belfast, Ireland.

Rogan, 38, had hurt Sexton with some huge hooks in the 8th round and looked to be in the process of finishing Sexton off when the English referee Dave Parris stopped the action, and then marched Rogan over to the ringside doctor, who then stopped the bout due to swelling under Rogan’s left eye.

The time of the referee stopping the action was rather odd, because it happened just when Rogan appeared to be close to finishing off the badly hurt Sexton. As it is, Rogan had to be content with knowing that he had come close to winning, but lost it due to his swollen left eye.

Had the fight continued into the 9th, there’s little doubt that Rogan would have finished Sexton off, as the English fighter was dog tired and was having problems taking the big shots from Rogan. Earlier in the fight, Sexton had fought effectively, using his jab, movement and quick combinations to control the first two rounds.

Sexton landed some big shots in the 2nd round, appearing to hurt Rogan near the end. In the 3rd, both Sexton and Rogan traded big shots, making it hard to tell who won the round. Sexton looked a little bit better, but Rogan appeared to land the bigger shots.

Rogan began to add more pressure in the 4th, and tagged Sexton with some nice right hands in the round. Sexton continued to land well with his jabs and combinations, though. Sexton continued to fight effectively in the 6th, using his powerful jab to home in on the swollen left eye of Rogan and use it for target practice.

However, Rogan landed a huge right hand in the round that hurt Sexton, who barely stayed on his feet. In the 7th, Sexton threw more jabs and right hands, controlling the round and doing more damage to Rogan’s left eye. The referee stopped the action at one point and had the ringside doctor examine the swollen eye of Rogan.

The action then resumed. In the 8th, Rogan went after Sexton, tagging him with a big left hook and right hand early in the round and hurting him. Rogan then went after Sexton, punishing him with a barrage of big shots and hurting him further.

The referee stopped the action in the middle of Rogan’s barrage to warn him about throwing a rabbit punch. It was a warning that shouldn’t have been given, because Sexton was the one that stopped fighting and turned his back on Rogan.

If anyone that should have been warned, it was Sexton, who needs to be taught not to turn his back on his opponents when taking punishment. Then when Rogan attempted to finish off Sexton, Sam conveniently lost his mouthpiece. It looked like Sexton spat it out to avoid punishment, because he was on the verge of being knocked out by Rogan.

Instead of continuing to fire him up, Rogan backed off and let Sexton have his mouthpiece reinserted. This in effect wasted time and pretty much finished any chance that Rogan had to knock him out, because the referee almost immediately stopped the action and took Rogan over to the ringside doctor, who then advised for the bout to be stopped. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:37 of the round.

It’s too bad that the referee didn’t allow Rogan to finish off Sexton, because his timing for having the doctor examine Rogan couldn’t have been worse if he tried. Even if the referee hadn’t stepped in when he did, Rogan shouldn’t have been playing the nice guy by backing away and letting Sexton have his mouthpiece put back in. Because of the controversial nature of the ending, there needs to be a rematch, because this was a bad way for the fight to end.

Although Rogan might be better off going after a more appealing fighter rather than wasting time in trying to get a rematch with Sexton. At 38, Rogan should look for a bigger named opponent. The problem is that the loss will probably hurt Rogan, driving him down in the rankings and making him less appealing as an opponent. Sexton didn’t appear interested in giving Rogan a rematch after the sight, saying that he wanted to move onto bigger things.