By Oli Smith
Eleven months ago, Rob Norton and David Dolan squared off against each other and produced arguably the best domestic fight of the year. This time round, as before, both the Commonwealth and BBBofC British title hardware would be up for grabs at the Leisure Centre in Altrincham, Cheshire. Dolan was a mere novice in his first attempt at dethroning Norton, having never been beyond six rounds. His record of 13-2 (5KO’s) included a loss at Heavyweight to Martin Rogan in the Prizefighter tournament, certainly nothing to be ashamed of at the time. Norton on the other hand has fought just once since last February and at 38 years of age, it seems that ring rust through inactivity could be the deciding factor between two otherwise closely matched competitors.
From the opening bell Dolan made his intentions clear, he jumped on the champion and didn’t give him an inch to maneuver or a second to breathe, which is not to say that work produced by the young challenger was of great quality, if anything, Norton stole rounds countering with single, but clean and heavy blows. In a clear departure of tactics, Dolan had disregarded the jab which had served him so well in their first encounter.
Midway through the third round Dolan trapped Norton in a neutral corner and hammered away at him for a full minute and a half, until the bell sounded and the fighters went their separate ways. During this time Norton slipped, ducked and dived out of the way of everything that Dolan could throw at him. Whilst the challenger’s plan may have been to tire the old champion out, it seemed Dolan was doing a pretty good job of tiring himself out.
Norton had clearly given the third round to Dolan and in repost he added venom to every shot he threw in the fourth, a cuffing shot brought Dolan to his knees but was rightly called a foul, after a brief protest, both men got back down to business.
Dolan was let down tonight by his inability to adjust through the fight, he never really stepped up through the gears when he found himself losing a round, nor did he adapt to the same shots that landed time and again. Lead hooks and uppercuts came crashing through the challenger’s guard as he plodded forward without giving much thought to his work. If he had jabbed his way inside, or feinted and stepped back six inches he would have nullified almost all of the success that Norton had throughout the fight.
It took until the eighth round for the action to really open up, the pace had dipped somewhat at this point as the brawling had clearly taken a lot out of both men, in the final 30 seconds each man let their hands go at close range and traded shots until the bell sounded, it was a reminder to the crowd who had risen to their feet, that the fireworks could go off at any second.
Dolan managed to find a second wind as the fight entered the championship rounds, showing the maturity as a fighter that he lacked last time round, he finally began to stamp his authority on the fight as Norton allowed himself to slow down just a touch. Up until this point the champion’s reactions were key to both his offence and defense as he countered Dolan coming in and slipped his shots on the way out. In slowing just a fraction, he allowed Dolan to land so much more leather and conversely, couldn’t land his own shots. As a result, Dolan seemed to get stronger and stronger whilst Norton’s titles looked to be slipping away from him.
By the tenth round Norton looked gassed and ready to be taken out, Dolan applied relentless pressure but couldn’t capitalize, as was the case earlier in the fight, he got over excited, started to smother his best work and Norton got a reprieve. Like a true champion, Norton perked up late in the eleventh and held on through the final round, trading punches with the younger man to the very end. In fact as both men became tired the fight got better and better, as each man was forced to open up or managed create opportunities that simply weren’t there earlier in the contest.
Both men raised their arms in the air at the sound of the final bell but neither seemed sure of victory over a closely contested, hard battle. The scores were called out as 115-114 Dolan, 116-113 Norton, 114-114 Draw; Norton retains his titles via draw. Under the circumstances of the fight neither man could say for certain that they deserved to win clearly, though arguments could of course be made for both, depending on your own judging style. Dolan threw more and applied pressure, but it wasn’t intelligent pressure, nor did he seem to think about what he was throwing. Norton kept the output fairly minimalist but consistently landed the cleaner, harder shots and proved he could time his man to the nanosecond. If he had thrown in bunches or offset Dolan’s mauling style by constantly popping the jab he may well have won emphatically.
Tonight’s main undercard contest featured another rematch which was eagerly anticipated thanks to the outstanding performances put on by both Cello Renda; 18-8-1 (11KO’s) and Paul Samuels; 20-7-2 (12KO’s) last time round. In the eight weeks since the Middleweight non title clash, you may have seen the stunning double knockdown online, when both men detonated left hooks simultaneously, leaving Terry O’Connor no choice but to give both men the full count.
Like the headlining contest tonight, it couldn’t live up to the original, but this one wasn’t far off as both Renda’s and Samuels’ style blended perfectly from the opening bell. Samuels won the first fight by TKO in three; tonight he seemed on a mission to do it even quicker. By the second round Renda’s nose was bleeding profusely - seemingly broken - Paul Samuels went in for the kill with a left hook that sent Renda staggering to the canvas. Yet Renda showed the heart that has become synonymous with his career and fought his way back from the knockdown to stagger Samuels at the death of the round.
Having gained the upper hand, Samuels went into overdrive in the third and had his man out on his feet but couldn’t find the punch to close the show. Instead Renda rallied back in the fourth and crushed Samuels to the deck with a beautifully delivered left hook. Tonight, as before, both men had proved they had more than enough power to hurt each other.
Both began to gas by the eighth and final round but Samuels had slowly began to claw back some momentum and ended up winning the last round as Renda began to get sloppy. It was another tough one to call but ultimately the score of 74-77 to Paul Samuels was fair, as he did managed to out hustle the young man from Peterborough in the final few stanzas. Though there was no title on the line tonight, neither man did themselves a disservice, if anything a third outing may be on the cards judging by the reception both men have received so far.
