By Nate Anderson: BBBofC British super bantamweight champion Jason Booth (33-5, 13 KO’s) easily defeated challenger Rocky Dean (14-3-2, 4 KO’s) by a lopsided 12-round unanimous decision on Tuesday night at York Hall, in Bethnal Green, London. The final judges’ scores were 120-108, 119-109 and 119-109. Booth, 31, who was making his first defense of his title after winning the vacant title with a 6th round TKO over Mark Moran in April, tried trading shots with Dean on the inside in the 1st round.
However, Booth, 31, quickly discovered that Dean with the better inside fighter and opted to keep on the outside for the remainder of the fight. Booth then used in and out attacks to get in body and head shots before Dean could respond. Dean, 31, showed little power or any ability to fight from the outside.
With Booth pretty much just jumping in and out with quick attacks, Dean was left having to make the best of things when Booth would decide to stay close on rare occasions. Dean was cut high on the forehead from a head clash in the first round.
In rounds two through six, Booth would come in punching range and land ripping body shots and uppercuts and then escape to the outside. Dean stalked him continuously and would land short body and head shots when he would corner Booth.
However, the punches had next to no power and didn’t impress the judges. At the same time, Booth was landing many more punches than Dean and outworking him by a high margin in every round. Dean had his moments early in the 4th when Booth decided to stay in close for a brief spell.
However, as soon as Booth moved away to the outside, Dean was left without any opportunities to continue his attack. In the 6th, Dean trapped Booth on the ropes and landed four good shots. However, Booth quickly turned him around and began to batter him on the ropes in a skillful move.
In rounds seven through twelve, Booth dominated Dean landing fast shots before getting away to the outside. Dean outworked Booth in the 10th, a rare round in which Booth didn’t throw more punches than Dean. However, in the 11th and 12th, Booth turned up his work rate once again and finished strong by throwing and landing many more punches than Dean.
Booth was cut on the forehead in the 12th, but the blood didn’t slow him down any. In the end, Booth threw an incredible 1127 punches in the bout, landing 225, whereas Dean threw a respectable 842, landing 112.
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In an impressive showing, big 6’6” Tom Dallas (6-0, 4 KO’s) destroyed Ukrainian Stas Belokon (3-2, 1 KO’s) in a 2nd round stoppage. Dallas, 24, knocked Belokon down three times in the fight, once in the 1st and twice more in the 2nd round. After the 3rd knockdown, referee Dave Parris stopped the fight at 2:13 of the round. Dallas was all over Belokon in the 1st round, working him over with big power shots on the ropes.
Dallas can punch really well with both hands and showed world class power in the fight. Belokon was in full retreat for most of the round, moving from one side of the ring to the other to try and escape Dallas’ attacks.
Near the end of the round, Dallas caught Belokon with a big right hand that knocked Belokon back a couple of feet while he was moving along the ropes. Belokon then wisely took a knee and received a standing eight count from referee Dave Parris.
The round ended shortly after that. In the 2nd round, Dallas caught Belokon on the ropes early on and worked him over with a series of big shots to the head. Belokon was then knocked down from a big right hand from Dallas while in the corner.
After Belokon got up, he tried fleeing across the ring. However, Dallas calmly cut off the ring and trapped him against the ropes once again. This time, Dallas blasted Belokon to the canvas with a right-left combination. Belokon was able to get to his feet at the count of eight, but referee Dave Parris decided to stop the bout at this point because of the one-sided nature of the bout.