Jamie McDonnell 13-2-1 (5) tonight won the British and vacant Commonwealth bantamweight
titles with a split decision win over veteran Ian Napa 19-8 (1). In this writers
opinion though, the wrong man had his hand raised.
There can be no doubts that McDonnell fought better than most people thought he would and the first two rounds were pretty even with possibly McDonnell edging. The fight was fought at a fast pace throughout and Napa who had a big height disadvantage fought inside regularly.
It seemed to me that the rounds were close but Napa was landing the better shots especially with digs to the body. Most of the middle rounds it was Napa who was just doing the cleverer stuff but McDonnell just kept coming. This pressure did start to tell in the 10th and McDonnell really went for it in the last two rounds and did enough to bank these final two.
I had it 115-113 for Napa but it was quite close. Dave Parris had it for Napa by 115-114 but Ian Jon-Lewis scored it a reasonable 115-114 for McDonnell while Richie Davies was watching a different fight from me and scored it 117-112 for the new champion McDonnell. Afterwards McDonnell said he would like to take Napa’s proposed European title shot while Napa asked what more could he do to win a fight and said he would continue his career.
By JIMMY LAST (EDITOR)
