By Ian Aldous: This Saturday night, on his home turf in South London, Lenny Daws (30-3-2) looks to win the European super-lightweight championship at the second attempt, as he battles Ruben Nieto (16-1) for the vacant belt. The fight serves as the main event of a Channel 5 International Boxing broadcast live from 10:30pm in the UK.
It was June 2013 when Daws earned his first shot at the European 140lbs championship against Michele Di Rocco in Italy. Scorecards of 115-113, 115-113 and 116-112 saw Di Rocco narrowly claim the title which he’s gone on to defend four times before vacating. One of those successful defences was actually against Ruben Nieto, whose decision loss was even tighter. It’s all led to what looks to be a genuine 50/50 match-up on Saturday night, and Daws has been doing his homework in preparation. “We’ve watched a little bit that’s on Youtube of him, the Di Rocco fight, his last fight and a few other fights. Just basically watching the Di Rocco fight to see how he copes with the twelve rounds. It looks a winnable job – we’re up for it.”
Nieto, from Madrid, Spain, will be fighting outside of his home country for only the second time in his professional career. So it was very surprising that when the fight was formally announced in October – it was to be in Carshalton, England, around a mile from Lenny’s front door! This is especially unusual considering that Nieto and his team managed to Get Michelle Di Rocco and his European title over to Spain last year. “Mick Hennessy (Daws’ promoter) had a little chat with them and the negotiations went well with them. I was very shocked because they got Di Rocco to go to their country which is a bit of a shock being the champion, you’d think the champion would want to try and keep it in his backyard. I was thinking ‘oh, I don’t want to go overseas again’. We got the phone call – we got it here! I’m well happy, can’t get any better.”
It’s been a long wait for Daws to finally get another crack at the title – he’s been the mandatory challenger for a whole year! It’s safe to say that he was a relieved man when the announcement came confirming the Nieto bout. “Once I won the EU title, it put me in mandatory position and we was waiting to see what Di Rocco was doing. I think he didn’t really want the rematch, then we found out if they got the opportunity (to fight for a world title) they would grab it and obviously vacate. They hung on to it for as long as possible and that was the outcome – he’s got his world title shot, so we don’t meet again. I’ve got to get rid of Ruben Nieto first, he (Di Rocco) could still be in my sights, we’ll have to see whether he can win. I’m just so happy that we’ve got it here this time – over the moon!”
As a tune-up, and to keep him ticking over, Daws was on the undercard of the July 25th Hennessy Sports show in Derby. Unfortunately, Mikheil Avakyan came to spoil from the outset and it made for an ugly fight. Plenty of holding, pushing and shoulder-butts left him lucky not to be disqualified. Not exactly ideal preparation for a European title fight. “Everything I did – he just grabbed on to me. You just can’t get going with opponents like that, they wanna survive and earn a pound note and they just wanna get through it. I’d fire a couple of shots and he’d grab me and tie me up. It was like a wrestling match, you know (laughs). It was an eight-rounder, I had plenty left in the tank, which was good. We had a couple of weeks off from that and then we was straight back in the gym because we knew the opportunity probably would come and it has, so it’s worked out well for me.”
Daws has been the twelve-round distance on six occasions and he’s known on the domestic scene for his tremendous fitness levels. It’s very possible that fitness could be the deciding factor on Saturday. “Oh, definitely. I’ve looked at him and he can be busy at times, so if it has to be a busy fight – I’m prepared to go that way which a lot of people know I prefer. If it’s gonna be a bit of a fitness test then let’s just do it. I’ve got double the amount of fights on my record than him, so I’ve got a bit more experience over the twelve-rounders. The latter part of the fight is gonna be my sort of fight and when I get busier and busier. We’ll see what he brings to the table round-by-round and adapt to him.”
Despite Nieto (thirty-two) being four years younger than Lenny Daws (thirty-six) – it will be a shock to me if he can keep up with Daws’ stellar work rate over twelve rounds. “A lot of people say my age is getting on now but I’m still as fit as ever, feeling so good. Really, really looking forward to this. I always seem to raise my game in the title fights and that’s when I tend to get the knockouts and stoppages because there’s (opportunities) to come off these fights. So, you do raise your game and you do perform better and I do perform better in a championship fight over the twelve round distance. I’ve always preferred that. Don’t get me wrong – they’re gonna be a little bit harder, but I just seem to settle down and get comfortable and get going, that’s what I like to do.”
This fight card will be somewhat of a celebration for promoter, Mick Hennessy. Having guided Tyson Fury from his professional debut all the way to the World heavyweight championship, it’ll be his first show back on English soil and it gives his other long-time fighter – Daws, the chance to win a big title. “I’ve been with Mick from day one. I think it’s coming up for thirteen years or just over twelve years I’ve been with Mick. When I held the British title, he always wanted to try and get a venue nearer home to me. York Hall was ‘as good as’ for me really. I would sell it out, it was nice to box there. This one’s even closer, it’s a dream come true for me to have it there. A big title like this, vacant title, it’s all there for me now. I’ve just got to go and grab it with both hands.”
Lenny Daws vs. Ruben Nieto for the European super-lightweight title is live on Channel 5 from 10:30pm this Saturday night.
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