By Nate Anderson: For the second time in a year, Commonwealth featherweight champion John Simpson (20-6, 8 KO’s) stopped Paul Truscott (13-2, 1 KO’s), this time in the 10th round on Friday night at the Eston Sports Academy, Middlesbrough, in Yorkshire. Simpson, 26, was making his Commonwealth title, which he won with an eighth round stoppage victory over Truscott in January 2009.
Last night, Simpson battered Truscott from the opening bell with hard combinations, cutting Truscott, 23, over both eyes and giving him a bloody nose to go along with it. Truscott was staggered in the 9th after getting hit with a big right hand. Referee Victor Loughlin ruled that Truscott’s glove had touched the canvas, although it hadn’t.
It hardly mattered, though, because Truscott was taking severe punishment and probably needed the short break anyway while the referee gave him standing eight count. Simpson gave Truscott some god awful punishment, but tired somewhat after the 6th round.
Truscott had his moments in the 8th and 9th rounds, landing well to the body. Simpson lost a little off his punches and allowed himself to be smothered by Truscott, but he still to land some sharp right hands that snapped Truscott’s head back.
In the 10th round, Simpson caught Truscott on the ropes and unloaded with a series of hard combinations that had Truscott’s head snapping back repeatedly and blood flying everywhere. Referee Victor Loughlin, covered with blood from Truscott using his shirt as a towel to wipe blood from his face, stepped in and stopped the fight at 1:34 of the 10th round.
Truscott was unhappy with the stoppage, but it was a good decision to have the fight stopped at this point because Truscott was taking a lot of punishment since the 9th round and had little chance to score a knockout. Truscott needed a knockout by this point to win because he had lost most of the rounds of the fight.
I actually had Simpson winning every round, but the judges likely gave Truscott a couple of mercy rounds.
It was apparent from the 1st round that Truscott was in for a long night, as Simpson teed off on him with powerful combinations to the body and head.
Over and over again, Simpson would land looping right hands to the head and hooks to the body. Truscott looked like a skinny beanpole just taking a lot of terrible punishment. Truscott may have been a champion only this year, but Simpson was a level above him in talent and the fight was a huge mismatch. In the 2nd round, Truscott received the first of his two cuts, with his right eye receiving a long one inch cut on the side.
Then in the next round, Truscott was cut again, this time on the left side of his eye. Now blood was dripping everywhere while Truscott was fighting, with a lot of it ending up on Simpson, covering him with blood and making it look as if he had showered in the red stuff. From rounds two through six, Simpson battered Truscott with ease, beating him black and blue in mostly one-sided action.
In the 7th round, Simpson began to show signs of tiring and was smothered on the inside by Truscott. Simpson still landed many more punches than Truscott, but his punches had lost a lot of the steam on them. In the 8th round, Truscott’s nose began to bleed as badly as both his eyes, making his face look like one big bloody mess. It was awful to look at. Simpson kept firing punch after punch, albeit with less power than before.
In the 9th round, Simpson landed a short right hand while in close that buckled both of Truscott’s legs, almost causing him to fall. The referee mistakenly ruled it a knockdown. Afterwards, Simpson continued to batter Truscott for the remainder of the round. In the 10th, Truscott, now no longer punching, retreated to the ropes and took a slew of punches that snapped his head every which way but loose. The referee then stepped in and stopped the massacre.
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