By Nate Anderson: Irish super middleweight prospect Darren Sutherland (4-0, 4 KO’s) struggled to beat Ukrainian Gennadiy Rasalev (2-2, 1 KO’s), stopping him in the 4th round due to a cut over the left eye of Rasalev at the York Hall, in Bethnal Green, England. Sutherland, 27, the 2008 Olympic Bronze Medalist for Ireland, found himself in a much tougher fight than he perhaps expected to get and was hit often by the taller 6’0” Rasalev.
Sutherland looked uncomfortable with the counter shots that he was getting hit with and seemed frustrated at times. Rasalev was cut on the left cheekbone in the 2nd, and Sutherland was cut on his right cheek in the 4th. In the 4th, referee Mark Green stopped the action and had the ringside doctor examine a cut over the left eye of Rasalev.
After a quick look, the doctor advised for the bout to be stopped. The fight was then officially called to a halt at 1:16 of the round. Sutherland looked good in the 1st round throwing hard jabs to the midsection of Rasalev that seemed to sink into his stomach and make him uncomfortable.
However, Rasalev made it a point to fire back with counter shots and found it surprisingly easy to land his shots. It was made easier because Sutherland wasn’t moving his head or trying to get out of the way of Rasalev’s punches in any way. Rasalev wasn’t a big puncher, so there wasn’t any danger of Sutherland being stopped.
However, by the end of the opening round, Sutherland’s right cheekbone was already beginning to swell up from the shots that Rasalev landed in the round. In the 2nd round, Rasalev and Sutherland stood toe to toe for portions of the round trading big shots.
Sutherland got the worst of it when they traded with flurries, mainly because he was so poor at blocking or ducking the shots from Rasalev. At one point a frustrated Sutherland grabbed Rasalev and pounded him three times with right hands on the top of his head while in a clinch.
The referee then gave Sutherland a warning for the illegal move, while Rasalev gave Sutherland a look as if to say “what’s wrong with you?’ Clearly, Sutherland was uncomfortable with having a live opponent in front of him and was becoming a little unhinged with being hit back.
Later in the round, Sutherland seemed to collect his composure and get back to business as he landed some hard right hands and combinations in the last minute of the round. Rasalev’s left cheek was bleeding and swelling up from big right hands he was getting nailed with.
Rasalev started the 3rd round firing off hard combinations to the head of Sutherland in the opening minute. Sutherland then came back with big body shots and right hands to the head to dominate the remainder of the round.
However, Rasalev continued to hit him often with counter shots, taking advantage of Sutherland after he would throw a punch. In the 4th round, Sutherland fought well early landing big right hands and nice jabs. However, he was getting hit like clockwork by right hands from Rasalev again and again.
Although winning the fight, Sutherland looked wide open for any shot that Rasalev wanted to fight. Luckily for Sutherland, the referee Mark Green stopped the action and took Rasalev over to the ringside doctor, who checked over Rasalev’s cut over his left eye and advised that the bout be stopped.
“We’re not playing with marbles. It’s a tough sport,” Sutherland said after the fight. “The opponent is going to hit you back. I wanted to keep going and I’m disappointed that the fight was stopped due to the cut. I keep learning, that’s what it’s all about. I took a few shots there, the guy [Rasalev] was game.”
Sutherland needs a lot of work if he wants to compete on the world stage. He’s small for a super middleweight at 5’9” and seemed to have problems with the size of the taller Rasalev. If this were Mikkel Kessler, Andre Dirrell, Lucian Bute or Andre Ward that Sutherland was in there with, he would have been easily defeated. Those guys are faster, bigger and punch almost as hard as Sutherland.
At 27, Sutherland doesn’t have a lot of time because he’s actually older than both Dirrell and Ward, who are already ranked high in the division. Unless Sutherland shows a lot of sudden improvement, I can’t see him being any more than a gatekeeper in the super middleweight division. He’s really too short for the division and needs to consider moving down a division or two. He’d be a good light middleweight but he’s probably too small for the middleweight division as well.
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