By Nate Anderson: In one of the worse fights I’ve seen in awhile, BBBofC British heavyweight champion Danny Williams (41-7, 31 KOs) defeated John McDermott (25-5, 16 KOs) by a 12-round split decision on Saturday night at the Crowtree Leisure Centre, Sunderland, Tyne and Wear. The final judges’ scores were 116-111, 116-111 for Williams and 113-115 for McDermott. I personally had Williams winning eight rounds to three with one round even.

The fight was hard on the eyes due the constant clinching from both fighters. For the most part, the action died completely after the 4th round, as both Williams and McDermott tired out and could do little other than wrestle and fight in brief spurts for the remainder of the fight. Williams, 35, seems to have lost his capacity to throw combinations like he used to.

Earlier in his career, you could count on Williams to be able to put together sustained combinations. This is how Williams acquired many of his knockouts during these years. However, he’s now more of a punch and grab heavyweight nowadays, and it makes it hard to watch him.

Williams dominated the 1st round using his jab, pounding the heavy, 6’3″ 256 pound McDermott with nice jabs as he would come forward. McDermott was too slow to land his ponderous shots in the round, and missed on the few attempts he tried to land anything.

The 2nd round was almost identical to 1st, except that Williams landed a nice two punch combination at the end of the round. In the 3rd round, McDermott had a point deducted for throwing a forearm. Unfortunately for McDermott, he also lost the round due to his inaction as he continued to eat jabs.

In the 4th round, Williams finally landed some power shots, hitting McDermott with some nice right hands to the head. For his part, McDermott continued to have problems landing his shots, missing badly for most of the round.

The crowd began to get restless in the 5th, booing the non-action in the ring. It didn’t change anything, though, because Williams continued to mostly jab, and occasionally land right hands and McDermott missed on the few attempts that he tried to land anything.

In the 6th round, Williams was docked a point for excessive holding. However, he appeared to win the round with his jab alone. McDermott landed a few punches, but not nearly enough to overcome all the jabs he was getting nailed with. Say what you want about Williams, but he has a first rate jab, one of the best in the heavyweight division. He’s a much better jabber than more popular heavyweights like David Haye.

In the 7th round, McDermott got the better of Williams by landing some powerful right hands. Williams continued jabbing and grabbing McDermott, wrestling him on the inside.

Early in the 8th round, McDermott and Williams stood at center ring trading big shots in brutal toe-to-toe action. McDermott seemed to get the better of Williams in the round, but it was very close.

Williams came back in the 9th round, using his jab and landing well to the thick midsection of McDermott with big left hands. There was a great deal of holding in this round and the punches were often short shots while each of them had an arm hooked around each other.

The mauling continued in the 10th, with Williams landing the harder shots in close. Neither fighter was able to get much on their shots due to the fact that they were smothering their shots by standing too close.
Williams started out well in the 11th round, landing to McDermott’s midsection.

However, in the last minute of the round McDermott came on and landed a handful of nice combinations to the head and body of Williams. McDermott didn’t have much power on his shots due to his exhausted state, but he did enough in my book to win the round.

In the 12th, McDermott clinched Williams often, trying to slow the action down as Williams teed off with big body shots. McDermott clearly didn’t like getting hit in the midsection and was trying to slow Williams down at all costs.

In the end, I had Williams winning in a clear cut 12-round decision. Forget about the scores, Williams clearly won the fight. However, he looked terrible as did McDermott. I can’t see Williams holding onto his title for long, even on the local level.

In other action on the card, previously undefeated Larry Olubamiwo (4-1, 4 KOs) was defeated by Russian journeyman Daniil “Shrek” Peretyatko (16-21, 6 KOs) by a 6-round decision. The final score was 59-57. Olubamiwo’s big heavy shots had no effect on the hard chin of Peretyatko, and Olubamiwo found himself outworked in the fight. If he had studied Peretyatko a little better, Olubamiwo should have focused his efforts and throwing more body shots because that’s how you beat Peretyatko.

Sam Webb (14-1, 4 KOs) defeated Thomas McDonagh (34-2-3, 7 KOs) in a BBBofC British Light Middleweight title Eliminator. The scores were 96-95.