Anthony Small (23-1-0, 16KO's) last night made a successful first defence of his
British & Commonwealth light middleweight titles against Thomas McDonagh (34-3-3,
7KO's) at the Robin Park Centre in Wigan, England. It was a fight that wont live
on in the memory however, as Small dug out a unanimous decision victory that was
far from thrilling.
Small, as per usual, made his elaborate ring entrance, complete with collar and cuffs and riding on a trike, although it would appear he's dropped the Scream mask as it was notably absent. What Small did have though was a Spurs scarf, an anti-PR touch if ever there was one. Spurs had beaten Wigan (the venue of the fight was in the shadow of Wigan's ground) 9-1 recently in a football game. Needless to say holding the scarf above his head then removing his coat to reveal a Spurs jersey underneath didn't exactly endear him to the Wigan crowd.
As is usual with Small, his mouth does most of the talking and unfortunately not his fists. The fight however opened up positively, and McDonagh tried but couldn't really catch Small, who landed a few rights of his own that had no effect, but they were scoring punches that gave him the opener, albeit mainly going backwards as he did so.
As the fight progressed Small continued to evade McDonagh, posturing and picking with his jab and not allowing MCDonagh to get close. It didn't make for pretty viewing, and it wasn't even very effective as McDonagh seemed to be getting the slight edge as the fight neared the midway stage with patient, intelligent boxing. Small on the other hand was getting quite ragged, throwing wild swinging punches that were never going to land.
If ever someone needed an authoritative jab it was now. With both fighters choosing to carry their hands at their waists with very few punches landing, a solid jab would have been a godsend but neither fighter even really tried to employ the punch. The action was getting increasingly untidy, with little action, but if anyone had an edge it was McDonagh.
The fight came to life a bit in the ninth after Small landed a succession of right hand that seemed to rock McDonagh. Suddenly Small was finding a home for his wild swings, and it was down to McDonagh getting tired and sloppy, something he's been known for in the past. Small continued to land punches, and was setting a pace McDonagh was no longer confortable with. Going into the championship rounds I had Small up 96-95 so the fight was still up for grabs.
Unfortunately, as was the case with the majority of the fight, neither man seemed
to take the initiative and they finished out the fight with two scrappy rounds, with
neither man really landing anything of note. It really ws a bad clash of styles and
there was an air of relief when the fight finally ended. It went to the scorecards
and Small was announced the unanimous decision winner with all three judges, by scores
of 116-114 and 115-113 twice. For the record FightFranchise scored it 115-114 for
Small.
As ever slightly delusional, Small somewhat over rated his victory. "I always knew I was going to win it. I'm not at all disappointed with the fight. McDonagh was always going to run and hold on, although I did catch him with a few shots so he has a good chin I'll give him that, but I always knew I was going to win."
On the undercard Anthony 'Million Dollar' Crolla (15-2-0, 6KO's) put on what was quite possibly the performance of the night, stopping veteran Michael Brodie (36-4-1, 24KO's) inside three rounds of their scheduled eight round super-featherweight bout.
Brodie, a former World title challenger with impressive credentials, retired from the ring for four years after losing to Scott Harrison in a challenge for the WBO featherweight title in 2005. In August he made a winning return but this fight was too much for the faded champ and was blown away by the younger, hungrier Crolla. Brodie should probably call it a day whilst Crolla can now go on to bigger and better things.
There were also wins for Martin Murray (16-0-0, 6KO's), who outpointed Sergey Khomitsky over eight rounds, Scott Quigg ((15-0-0, 9KO's), who won a sixth round TKO over Yuri Voronin, Andy Morris (17-2-0, 6KO's), winning a decision over Pierre Francis Bonicel and Joe Murray (4-0-0, 1KO), who was impressive stopping Barrington Brown inside two rounds.
By CEI SMITH
