TalkingBoxing Article

March 10, 2004
TalkingBoxing's British Update

by Dave Crellin
     Who was that masked man? Well, it was Walter Estrada, a late replacement challenger for Scott Harrison's WBO featherweight title on Saturday night. Estrada, a Colombian southpaw of little paper pedigree, showed a bag of tricks in comfortably taking the first three rounds from the seemingly bemused champion before Harrison got to grips with the task ahead of him and began landing some serious shots of his own.

Estrada, who had been connecting with fast, hard shots, seemed to lose all heart as soon as the Scott came out strongly for the fourth and dropped Estrada with a right to the body. Working head and body in the fifth, Harrison chopped down the now-meek Colombian twice in a minute to bring the referee's intervention. Estrada, though, was ready to call it a night.

Harrison moves on and, whilst he is looking at the marquee fights of the featherweights, a match with the winner of the upcoming Michael BrodieInjin Chi rematch is one to make British punters salivate. Harrison is a strong featherweight, as this fight showed, and not without skill. Pitting him against a busy, hard puncher with a strong chin should make for a cracker.

On the undercard, the WBU middleweight merry-go-round saw Anthony Farnell save his career with an impressive third round stoppage of home champion Lawrence Murphy. As ever, Farnell displayed the delicate skills and cagey approach of a pit bull as he launched into Murphy from the opening bell, dropping him with a right halfway into the first.

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Murphy seemed to box too tall, with not enough movement or return aggression, and Farnell was able to drop him in each round before veteran ref Dave Parris called the Manchester man off. Murphy goes back into the melting pot, and his training team hinted, albeit thinly, that this might be it for the likeable Scot. Farnell can now look to rematch Wayne Elcock, to whom he lost the title in the first place. He is never in a dull fight and whilst at best a European level fighter, 'Arnie' will be worth watching as long as he is active.

The biggest UK card of the weekend is in Nottingham on Friday, headed by Carl Froch as he attempts to capture his first major pro title with a challenge for Charles Adamu's Commonwealth super-middleweight title. This despite it only being Froch's 12th paid outing (and, in fact, it being Adamu's 13th). Adamu, beaten last time out by handy but limited Russian Vitali Tsypko, won the title from Matt Barney last August, and this is his first defence. Froch should have the speed, strength and skills to win this title, but the sturdy Ghanaian should last a while.

The undercard sees the usual Hennessy fighters including Matt Thirwall, and David Walker, as well as interesting run-outs for Ryan Rhodes and the comebacking Herbie Hide. All should win.

Saturday brings an interesting match in Huddersfield between Jason Booth and Dale Robinson for the former's IBO super flyweight title. Local boy Robinson has recently moved up in weight and is undefeated after 15, having held the Commonwealth title at flyweight. Booth may have too much experience for the challenger, but with neither possessing a wealth of power it should be a good match for a points verdict.

Over in Copenhagen, Johnny Bredahl, Denmark's bantamweight warhorse, defends his WBA title against undefeated but comparatively inexperienced Japanese champion Nobuaki Naka. There are some rumours that this is Bredahl's last fight and, at 35 years old with a 54-2 record, he can use his experience (and maybe home advantage) to pull out a decision to cap a career of which he can be proud.

Looks like Michael Sprott's first defence of his British heavyweight title will be against English champion Matt Skelton. It doesn't promise to be a great match, but it should sort things out in the snakes and ladders of the UK big men.

The attack on Eamonn Magee reported last week has caused the Belfast hard man to hang up his gloves for good. Magee was due for a shot at Sharmba Mitchell, and for this to fall through in this manner is a double blow. All the best to Eamonn from myself and .

Tonight (Wednesday) sees the 97th Varsity Boxing Match between Oxford University and Cambridge University at the Oxford Town Hall. This is always a great event with a mixture of first-timers and experienced boxers putting together nine passionately-contested bouts for the Truelove Bowl. This year is Oxford's first without legendary coach Henry Dean, but with new coach Des Brackett having a core group of talented and committed boxers from which to choose, Oxford should reclaim the trophy that was theirs for 13 years before Cambridge wins in the last two years.

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