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Mark Hobson's third round KO over Tony Moran for the cruiserweight titles was emphatic when it came, and was preceded by knockdowns in both of the openers, but the match was not without difficulty for the champion. Moran, with no amateur boxing pedigree (he came to the sport from kickboxing) and in only his 14th pro contest, came to win and was aggressive from the opening bell. Strangely for a 6 foot 7 cruiser, his jab was largely ineffectual, but Moran's long arms snaked round and through Hobson's guard on numerous occasions.
Hobson caught up with the lanky Liverpudlian late in the first, and Moran started blowing heavily from the second. It was slated for 12, but was never going to get there. By the third, Moran had tired himself out and, backpedalling and carrying his hands low, left an opening that Hobson could have driven a bus through. Hobson's straight right thudded the weary scouser to the ground, and the fight was immediately halted. The cheer Moran received when he rose after a couple of minutes was testament to his gameness. Hobson is now looking for Carl Thompson, but will have to work on his defence before he gets in with any of Britain's other leading cruisers, who can all dig.
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Robinson had shown plenty of aggression and ability and was more than a handful for Booth, himself no slouch but not perhaps as good as he'd like to believe. After a strong opening, Booth let control of the fight slip to the younger man, who very much bossed the middle rounds. But Robinson, in his first 'world' title challenge, had punched himself out allowing Booth to steady the ship and squeak home. Whilst neither of these two will be serious contenders on the world stage, they are certainly worthy boxers at their own level. Given the entertaining boxing on display in this fixture a rematch between the two would be great viewing.
Friday brought a first pro title for Nottingham super-middle Carl Froch and, perhaps more importantly, gave him plenty of rounds and some idea of the work he still has to do. Froch beat defending champion Charles Adamu for the Commonwealth belt, but went the full 12 to do so against the hard and aggressive Ghanaian.
It took a few rounds for both men to find their rhythm, Froch looking for his trademark counters and Adamu trying to force the pace. By the fifth, however, the match really started to warm up as both men threw heavy shots, the emphasis being far more on attack than defence. At least we know Froch can take a punch. Adamu was catching the challenger with rights as Froch elected to take the action into the trenches, and the champion seemed to be getting the better of things until Froch nailed him with a right of his own. Adamu went down but, whilst the wind was knocked from his sails, he stuck to his champion's task. Following the knockdown, Froch was able to gain the upper hand in most exchanges as the Ghanaian tired to emerge a winner by three rounds on the referee’s card
Chief support for this contest produced another unfortunate surprise for comebacking Herbie Hide, stopped on a cut in three against Lithuanian Menduaga Kulikauskas. This was not a great contest by any stretch, but the fact that the cut was caused by an accidental clash of heads means that the mooted Hide - Williams bout may not be as dead in the water as had first appeared. This is certainly not as disruptive as the stoppage loss 10 months ago to Zambian trialhorse Joseph Chingangu, but time must be running out for the hard-hitting Norwich bad boy.
This week, the main UK card is in Wembley and headlined by Audley Harrison as he rumbles with Dutchman Richel Hersisia for the WBF heavyweight bauble. Hersisia is being heavily touted by the Harrison camp, and has a pretty fierce record (21-0, 16 early) on paper. However, this record has largely been compiled on small hall shows in Scandinavia and Germany. The chances are the Dutch champion, normally chubby and just over 6 foot, will be found pretty quickly by Harrison, who will come in with advantages in skill, reach and quality bulk.
Chief support sees Commonwealth featherweight champion Nicky Cook face Frenchman Cyril Thomas, likewise unbeaten with 22 wins, for the Gallic pugilist's European title. Should be a good tussle this one, with Cook having the edge in power and home advantage. Thomas is a stylist and light puncher, despite holding a technical stoppage win over Manual Calvo, who went the distance with Naseem Hamed. Cook to take the points win here.
Young cruiserweight David Haye is a late addition to the card. He faces Hastings Rasani in what is best described as a consolidation fight.
On the continent, Silvio Branco defends his WBA light-heavyweight belt against the everlasting Frenchman Fabrice Tiozzo. The undercard features Branco's last opponent, Mehdi Sahoune, on the comeback trail after being stopped by the limited but tough Italian in October. Tiozzo is clearly being parachuted in to win the championship back for France at this Lyon show, not having fought at light-heavy for 8 years. Tiozzo is a tough customer with the ring skills of an octopus's jeweller, and combined with a set of judges predisposed to the home fighter, this should be a close but entertaining points win for the Frenchman in a good battle of veterans.
Joe Calzaghe's move up to light-heavyweight has been all but confirmed with a June or July bout for Glencoffe Johnson's IBF belt. Calzaghe will keep his WBO super-middle title for the time being, but the chances of him being able to make it back down to 168 pounds without recourse to amputation are slim.
Past British Updates
Feb. 3 | Feb. 10 | Feb. 18 | Feb. 24 | March. 3 | March. 10
