By William Mackay: If you look last night’s fight between 23-year-old unbeaten Tyson Fury (18-0, 13 KO’s) and 40-year-old Martin Rogan (14-3, 7 KO’s) it’s hard to see it as any other way but Fury carrying the aging Rogan all the way to the 5th before taking him out after dropping him with a left to the body.
Fury won the Irish heavyweight title with the victory at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast, Norther Ireland. Rogan was down twice in the fight.
The whole fight seemed like farce from the very get go with Fury coming out in a southpaw stance and fighting that way the entire fight. That right there is unheard of. Nobody does that because it’s too risky, but Fury did and you have to figure that he did it because he knew this was a mismatch even before the fight.
Can you imagine Fury fighting southpaw against David Price or the Klitschko brothers? It would be over so quickly that Fury’s would be spinning around on his shoulders from the shots he would eat if he came out with that mickey mouse experimental stance. As a southpaw, Fury was much less effective than he normally is. However, I think that’s what the point was.
Fury knew he had a old man in front of him who is nothing but a part-time fighter at this point in his career, and it looks like he kept him up by handicapping himself with a southpaw stance. But more than that, Fury didn’t even seem to be trying for the first two rounds, mostly just coasting and trying to block Rogan’s big shots.
In the 3rd, Fury suddenly started throwing punches and immediately put Rogan down with a left hand. It like night and day. Up to that point, Fury had been just pawing and not trying to land anything, but then he explodes speed and combinations and Rogan is down. As quickly as that was done, Fury went back to doing nothing at all in the 4th round. In the 5th, Fury turned it on again and pounded Rogan to the body, backing him up against the ropes.
Rogan, who looked out of sorts from the body shots briefly looked at his corner for help. Moments later, Fury landed a left to the body that put Rogan down on all fours. Rogan was in a lot of pain from the body shot but he made it back to his feet, but his trainer threw in the towel and the fight was halted. Rogan wasn’t too happy with the fight being stopped, but Fury would have continued to throw body shots and would have ended the fight in the same round had it been allowed to continue.
It’s disappointing because Fury gave up his British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles just so he wouldn’t have to fight David Price. Instead of him, he faces an older 2nd tier fighter and Fury appears to carry to the 5th by not throwing punches and fighting out of the southpaw stance the entire fight.
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