Night of the Champions Results from London
Nathan Cleverly powered his way to European light heavyweight honours in London this evening with a dominating victory over Italian veteran Antonio Brancalion. The Welshman, who moves to 19-0 (9), stalked his man from the off, applying intelligent pressure backed up with solid hitting (this was Cleverly’s sixth consecutive knockout win).
Brancalion came to fight yet he lacked sufficient pop to keep his young opponent at bay and quickly began to field meaty right handers which chipped away at his stubborn resistance. Floored right on the bell to end round four, Brancalion was never allowed back into the bout, Cleverly putting his foot down in the fifth, bouncing humdingers off Brancalion’s head which forced referee Jean-Louis Legland to step in at the 1:15 mark.
Cleverly will now go back to concentrating on passing his Maths finals at university before returning to the ring this summer to defend his new title, a platform he hopes will prep him sufficiently for a world title tilt down the line.
Dagenham’s Kevin Mitchell didn’t hang around long against Ignacio Mendoza after an opening round reconnaissance mission which featured the smooth boxing and sweet movement he’d employed against Breidis Prescott last time out. At 1:24 of the second round, Mitchell landed a super right hand over the top of Mendoza’s left hand, a salvo out of the blue, one which bounced the Colombian clean off his feet and out of the fight.
Post fight, Frank Warren announced that the WBO had mandated Mitchell’s next opponent be Aussie action man Michael Katsidis, giving both teams 28 days to negotiate terms before throwing the bout open to purse bids. Warren will be looking to secure home town advantage for Mitchell in what will be one hot ticket for British fight fans. Mitchell moves to 31 fights unbeaten with 23 quick wins.
Super middle prospect James ‘Chunky’ DeGale entered the arena to a rather excruciating self choreographed dance routine (Hamed-esque but a bit odd in a fight of this nature) yet when he finally arrived into the ring, he wasted no time in dealing with opponent Matthew Barr.
Showing nifty footspeed, DeGale didn’t leave Barr alone for a second, staying right in his man’s face whilst landing slashing, hurtful punches. A short right hook crumpled Barr early into round two however the Surrey man fought back tenaciously, landing a handful of decent shots himself as DeGale looked for the finish. Barr’s courageous rally came to no avail however as he was promptly flattened with a sweet right uppercut and fnished off with a brace of right hands.
Post fight, DeGale was drawn into responding to a recent challenge from rival George Groves, labelling him “that ginger, ugly kid” before apologising to his promoter Frank Warren, himself a one time coppertop. DeGale has charisma in spades and a star quality about him. Little by little he’s winning fans over after that disastrous debut which saw him roundly booed. He now moves to 6-0 (6) and can clearly be advanced a full level above the one he fought at tonight.
Light welter rookie Frankie Gavin extended his unbeaten record to 6-0 (5) by outboxing Peter McDonagh over six rounds. McDonagh put in a spirited shift, yet was unable to land much on the Birmingham starlet, Gavin counterpunching effectively throughout.
Gavin needs to develop his power in order to make nights like this a little easier on himself. His current lack of pop may encourage fighters to steam into him as McDonagh did early on here, although personally I’d like to see this super talented prospect concentrate more on his wonderful defence and forget about knocking people out for the time being at least.
Further down the card, Derek Chisora stopped a woeful Carl Baker in two rounds to move to 12-0 (7).
