Smith & Quigley hoping for Mersey Paradise
By: Andrew Harrison
Category: paul smith, tony dodson, tony quigley, Uncategorized
Most kids from Liverpool dream of making a living with their feet. Others, like British super middleweight champion Tony Quigley and former Contender series 3 star Paul Smith, choose to earn a crust with their hands. Tonight, on the banks of the River Mersey, each will be hoping to make the other give in to their will in a good old fashioned turf war.
Smith, 27-1 (15) is the betting favourite going in, a former world class amateur once touted as one to watch in the pro ranks who will be hoping that at 27, he can breathe new life into a career which has stalled somewhat. Quigley meanwhile is relatively green. After just 13 paid starts, he surprised many last time out by forcing a last round stoppage over local lad Tony Dodson in a rousing encounter for the British 168lb title. The only blemish on his record thus far, came at the hands of rising light heavyweight contender Nathan Cleverly who stopped him in five, however Quigley was at a severe handicap in terms of natural size in that one.
I think there’s good value to be had here. As with all Merseyside derbies, form tends to go out of the window once kick off arrives and pride, grit and determination can make up for any perceived gulf in class and technique. Smith is favoured at odds of 2/5 by William Hill, with Quigley a lively underdog at 7/4 (I imagine this will close somewhat before the bell rings) however I see this as a genuine 50/50 fight and have wavered more than once when making a pick.
Smith, despite being the puncher here, tends to need space and time to set himself to attack and I feel the squat and busy Quigley can frustrate him, much like David Banks managed to do against Smith in a fight also portrayed as a grudge match on America’s once popular boxing soap opera. After making things difficult for himself in that one, Paul admitted that he’d let emotion derail his fight plan and must be wary of something similar happening against Quigley in what will be a pressure cooker atmosphere.
Smith tends to shoot punches over the top of his opponent and can frustrate the viewer by appearing to think too much before throwing. One feels that if Quigley can stay close enough to him he can rough him up, perhaps cutting and outworking him down the stretch (although neither man has much form after the six round mark). If however Tony looks to stay outside and box from distance with his hands low, he could very well find himself on the end of a Smith haymaker which can relieve him very quickly of the Lonsdale belt he annexed in March.
Tactics however may become secondary, there’s real needle here with both men having to be seperated at the final presser before butting heads at yesterday’s weigh in. I fancy Quigley may well give up his advantages and slug it out with Smith, I detect he feels that just prior to Halloween, he’s managed to put the frighteners on his experienced foe and will go for the kill from the off.
Despite talking myself into a Quigley upset, I’ll go with logic and take Smith to land a big shot, perhaps after being outhustled and even hurt early, to salvage scouse pride in around seven rounds.
Smith weighed in yesterday at 168lb’s whilst Quigley scaled 167.25.
Also featuring on the undercard will be Olympic gold medallist James DeGale and former amateur world champion Frankie Gavin, who I fancy to be Britain’s finest prospect along with George Groves. You can see the fight live on Sky TV with coverage starting at 10pm and look out for my fight report on eastsideboxing.com.
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