By Nate Anderson: John Murray (28-0, 16 KO’s) defeated Jon Thaxton (34-11, 19 KO’s) last night in a 4th round stoppage, to regain the British lightweight title at the Leisure Centre, in Altrincham. Murray hurt Thaxton with a big right hand in the 4th round, causing Thaxton to stagger backwards to the ropes. Murray moved in and threw three shots, missing with two of them and connecting with a third, a right hand to the head.

At this point, referee Howard Foster stepped in between them and suddenly stopped the fight at 2:30 of the round. No question about it, the stoppage appeared to be premature because only one Murray’s final shots connected and Thaxton wasn’t given much of any chance to recover and start throwing his own shots back. It’s doubtful that Thaxton would have won the fight, because he looked old, slow and deteriorated, but he should have had a chance to see if he could.

In the 1st round, Thaxton fought well, boxing well, using movement to get in and out of range to land his shots. Thaxton’s punches came from all angles in the round and he showed a lot of energy for a 35-year-old. However, even at that point in the fight, it didn’t look as if Thaxton would be able to continue to fight at that kind of high pace for long without tiring out.

Murray wasn’t doing much, but you could tell that he was the stronger fighter when he would let his hands go. He wasn’t a lot of energy like Thaxton was by moving his torso and jumping in and out. There were a lot of missed punches by both fighters in the round. However, in the final minute of the round, Thaxton found his accuracy and began to land some nice right hands to the head of Murray

In the 2nd and 3rd rounds, Murray found Thaxton again and again with powerful right hands to the head, was able to pick Thaxton off as he came forward trying to land his own quick shots. At the end of the 2nd round, Murray appeared to stagger Thaxton after hitting him with a nice right hand to the head. It looked slightly like Thaxton was knocked off balance, but he clearly was wobbled as he rocked from side to side after getting tagged by Murray.

Thaxton made a mistake of going toe-to-toe with Murray starting in the 2nd. Thaxton was clearly not suited for this kind of brawling and was hit repeatedly by sharp right hands from Murray. In the 3rd round, Thaxton went back to his boxing early in the round, fighting well in the first minute of the round as he landed a number of left hands to the head.

Murray, though, came on in the 2nd half of the round and found Thaxton with a number of hard right hands to the head. Murray’s accuracy was downright scary, because he couldn’t seem to miss with his right hand. Thaxton, a southpaw, grew desperate, switching to orthodox briefly to try to throw Murray off and confuse him. It didn’t work. Murray continued to land right hands and left hooks to the head no matter what fighting stance Thaxton was using.

In the 4th round, Thaxton moved around nimbly shooting out fast punches. However, Murray found him again with yet another big right hand and hurt Thaxton badly, sending him to the ropes. Murray then unloaded on Thaxton as he attempted to cover up on the ropes and ride out the barrage. The referee then jumped in and stopped the bout, not letting Thaxton much of a chance to wait on Murray to tire out or stop punching. It looked a little like the fight was stopped way too quickly, because Thaxton might have been able to recover and start boxing again once Murray stopped fighting. Never the less, the referee stopped the bout, giving Thaxton another loss.

Despite the bad ending, it’s hard to see where Thaxton can go from here. He’s up there in age and perhaps too old to stage a comeback that would have any chance of success. At the same time, Thaxton doesn’t have the power to assist him in winning fights if he were to continue on in the lighter or heavier weight classes.