By Alexey Sukachev
Brentwood - This revenge would have been so difficult to get but, oh, how sweet it would have been had it come into reality. Unfortunately for Big Bad John McDermott (now 25-7, 16 KOs), he failed to realize his second chance against slowly rising British heavyweight prospect Tyson Fury (11-0, 9 KOs), and suffered his first stoppage loss in four and a half years, in a heated rematch of their first controversial encounter. Last time out McDermott had started fastly and after dropping some middle rounds and finished the job in style only to drop a highly disputed sole score (92-98) by referee Terry O'Connor to his younger opponent.
This time it was Tyson Fury, who went right after McDermott in the first round. Some hard right hands troubled McDermott in the first to give Fury an edge. More experienced Big Bad John mounted a comeback in the second using his lazy jab to keep Fury at bay while using his right hand on occasion as well. Rounds three and four were pretty even and one could easily score them one apart for each of the fighters.
In round five, Fury delivered a continious assault and had McDermott on ropes several times but couldn't hurt him considerably though forcing John to output a full-fledged survival mode. Despite a mild success in the fifth, Fury went to his corner on the wobbly legs and he also looked completely exhausted at the start of the sixth. That stanza turned into a nightmare for 22-year old Fury who was hit and pushed from pillar to post for an entire round. Fury was even worse in the seventh and also suffered a cut over his right eye. He was also deducted a point by referee Dave Parris at the end of the stanza for continuous holding and hugging.
In round eight, Fury who seemed ready to go suddenly caught the second wind. It was a pretty even stanza but Tyson connected with a hard short right hand to put McDermott down with just seconds remaining. It looked like an end for McDermott and it proved to be so immediately in the ninth. Fury dropped his durable opponent first with a short right hand and then in twenty seconds with the very same punch. John McDermott has beaten the count but was too wobbly to continue. Time was 1:08 of the ninth round. Fury is a new English heavyweight champion and a mandatory challenger for Derek Chisora's British title. McDermott suffered his fourth consecutive loss.
Hard-hitting heavyweight banger Larry Olubamiwo (9-1, 8 KOs) scored his third first-round kayo in a row after a huge right hand that senthis opponent Dave Ferguson (12-3, 4 KOs) down for the count at 1:53. Olubamiwo's sole loss came from the hands of notable journeyman Daniel Peretyatko. Ferguson lost inside the distance for the first time in his career.
Olubamiwo's conqueror and all-European crowd-pleaser Peretyatko went down to 16-29 with 6 KOs but gave (as usual) a stern test for hard-hitting towering British prospect Tom Dallas (11-0, 8 KOs) halting his kayo series. Dallas scored with numerous heavy blows but the Norse-based Russian just kept coming as he always does and landed his share of light but annoying punches. He was able to survive till the final bell to lose a decision.
It took former British super heavyweight Olympian David Price (7-0, 5 KOs) just 107 seconds to wipe out Czech bubbling journeyman Pavol Polakovic (12-9, 4 KOs) in the very first round. Polakovic was down twice and chose to retire after the second knockdown.
