By Adam Fillingham:
Last Wednesday
Last Wednesday was one of the most exciting of the Prizefighter tournaments; Super middleweights 2. Here are the results:
Quarter-finals
Rocky Fielding beat Patrick J Maxwell – second round stoppage
Joe Ainscough beat Wayne Reed – split decision 29-28, 27-28, 30-28
Tobias Webb beat Robin Reid – unanimous decision 30-27, 30-28, 29-28
Jahmaine Smyle beat Carl Dilks – split decision 29-28, 28-29, 29-28
Semi-finals
Rocky Fielding beat Joe Ainscough – first round stoppage
Tobias Webb beat Jahmaine Smyle – unanimous decision 30-27, 29-28, 29-28
Final
Rocky Fielding beat Tobias Webb – first round stoppage
As you can see Liverpool’s Rocky Fielding clearly won the tournament and was the first fighter in history to win Prizefighter with three stoppage wins. The £32,000 winner came into the tournament with only a three fight, three win record so Fielding was far off being favorite.
The favorite was Carl Dilks, who went out in the quarter finals against the unknown Jahmaine Smyle via a split decision. I myself had Smyle up 29-28 as did two of the official judges. The Smyle/ Dilks result may have been a clear one but the fight between Joe Ainscough and Wayne Reed had some controversy. I had the fight as a draw and was surprised that none of the scoring judges had it the same way. One judge in particular myself and many fans at home were surprised about. This is the judge that scored the bout 30-28 in favor of Ainscough. How is this possible when Joe was knocked down? But the fight is over now and there is nothing that can be done other than a rematch.
Last Weekend
Last Saturday night saw the return of Commonwealth welterweight champion Denton Vassell who had a tough job defending his title for the first time. Vassell took on the slippery Namibian Bethuel Ushona who showed fantastic long range skills and fast hands. Denton had some problems early on in a 50/50 bout but after the bell rang for the eighth round the fight swung towards the Brit. The Lancashire champion had a great amount of enthusiasm, determination, speed, a decent chin and what stood out to me was his ferocious body punching. The body punches thrown by Vassell were the defining factor in the fight and probably the reason for Ushona gassing out the way he did. They even had renowned body puncher Ricky Hatton off his seat!
So where does Vassell go now? Denton showed he is a good fighter, with a decent skill set but as for stepping it up in opposition I’m not so sure. I think Denton would struggle at the moment against most of the top tear of British welterweights such as Kell Brook, Craig Watson or Michael Jennings. I think a good direction for Vassell to go is a defense against ex Commonwealth champion John O’Donnell.
Next Weekend
This Saturday Frank Warren and Sky Sports brings us John Murray’s first defense of his European title against the unknown Karim El Ouazghari (hope you all know how much effort I put in to spell that!) Karim has only has 14 fights in his career but has won eleven of those bouts winning the Spanish title along the way. It is hard to see how Karim can be challenging Murray for this title though, or why Murray would choose such an unknown and inexperienced fighter to defend his belt against but the fight is happening and it should be an entertaining one.
I’m not sure this bout will be a spring board to bigger things for John Murray. Karim is probably a solid fighter with some good skills to pick up the Spanish belt and defend it, but it is hard to see how this fight will warrant a title shot against Humberto Soto or Juan Manuel Marquez. Maybe a defense against Kevin Mitchell or Gavin Rees will warrant that.
Also on the card are learning fights for Billy Joe Saunders against Turgay Uzan and Ryan Walsh against a TBA opponent.
Quick news
Gavin Rees has pulled out of the intriguing clash between himself and British champion Anthony Croller with a nose injury.
If European lightweight champion John Murray can get by El Ouazghari the Manchester fighter could be facing Hunberto Soto next. Murray is ranked No.2 in the WBC division (Soto holds the WBC belt) so even if Soto vacates his title Murray will get a shot.
If both fighters win there next bouts Rendall Munroe and Jason Booth will be fighting it out for Booth’s European crown.
More news on Rendall Munroe is that the Leicester fighter has apparently quit from Frank Maloney and joined the growing Hatton Promotions. Munroe’s manager assures fans there has been no fallout.
And finally former WBC super middleweight challenger and Carl Froch victim Andre Dirrell has been impressed with Brit George Groves in their recent sparring sessions.
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