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Okay I'm going to start of by saying that I was looking forward to this card very much, and was excited about the prospect of all fights really. The 4 main fights on the card were : Tony Bellew vs Ovil Mckenzi Franky Gavin vs Curtis woodhouse Ricky Burns vs Nicky Cook & Finally Kevin Mitchell vs John Murray. When I saw this card at first, I was happy with it, another job well done as far as Frank Warren is concerned, He always manages to deliver a card with no "weak links" as far as fights, On paper.
Okay now to the fights :
First of all , Franky Gavin vs Curtis Woodhouse was not shown fully in the UK and instead showed highlights, So as far as a review is concerned, I will review the key moments in the fight (this is what sky sport let us see). It seemed a tooth and nail sort of fight, both men had there moments, Gavin fought on the back foot, with Woodhouse managing to connect with more punches than the Franky Gavin corner would of liked. I can't really talk to much about this fight for previous stated reasons but it basically seemed a bit of a brawl. Gavin didn't really dominate like you would of hoped, but at the end of the fight, it went to a split decision, and Gavin got the decision.
Ovil Mckenzie vs Tony Bellew : The first fight was a knock down fest, this fight was quite the opposite, with Tony Bellew using his boxing skill on the backfoot for the whole fight, making Ovil Mckenzie look extremely crude throughout, with very few clean punches connecting from Ovil, Tony Bellew worked the jab and kept his distance, very rarely exchanging in the centre with Ovil Mckenzie, In my opinion this was the right approach, and maybe a world title fight with Nathan Cleverly was lingering in his mind, because he took very few, if any, risks at all. There was only one Big punch that connected from Ovil Mckenzie all night, and this didn't appear to trouble Bellew to much, Bellew comfortably won every round and won a strong Unanimous decision, Without risking getting K.O'd at any point. A good Peformance, but not the fight many people were expecting. I would give it a 6/10.
Next up was Ricky Burns vs Nicky Cook, The world title fight on the card, the fight that some people were looking forward to most, And to be honest, it was a disaster, not taking anything away from either man. Ricky Burns landed 1 shot the the back of Nicky cook early on (around 10 seconds in to round 1) and it sent Nicky cook to the canvas. There was clearly something wrong with his back, and he does have a history of back trouble. After a few Back related knock downs, his corner through the towel in, And he was taken out on a stretcher, I believe the fight lasted just over 1 minute 30 seconds, Ricky Burns did nothing wrong, and it was said by the head of boxing board of control, to be a freak incident, that caused cook this back problem, he was later taken to hospital and it was confirmed by them that there was a bad problem with his back. I am not going to give this fight a rating and see it really as a no contest, But neither man was at fault for this in my opinion.
Okay now on to the fight that I was looking forward to the most, Kevin Mitchell vs John Murray, this fight had been built up a fair bit, A bit of a Grudge match in the sense that this fight was always going to happen somewhere down the line, although both men seem to respect each other a lot. The fight started with Murray using his physical strength advantage to lean on Mitchell , and get inside, throwing a few combinations, Mitchell fought this on the back foot, similar to his performance vs Prescott in many ways. Murray, being the true warrior that he is, walked through punches, before landing combinations, some which seemed to trouble Mitchell, but I don't believe Mitchell was ever in any real serious trouble of being K.O'd. This fight was living up to its expectations, and both men were trading blows with each other. as we got to round 5, I had Murray up 3 rounds to 2, But it seemed a close fight that could go either way, But Murray had the higher work rate in the early goings. Round 7 was the first telling round of the fight, and gave us a real indication of the power of Kevin Mitchell, As he rocked the unbeaten Murray towards the end of round 7. Murray, on shaky legs, managed to get to the end of round 7. In between rounds Murray's corner had been stressing the need to land body shots on Kevin Mitchell, something that Murray never seemed able to do, this mean't that as we got into the second half of the fight, Kevin Mitchell did not seem to tired, and out of the two, Murray seemed the man struggling a bit. Round 8 started with both men landing clean blows early on, Mitchell kept backing off, got trapped on the ropes a couple of times, before managing to get away. As Murray hunted Mitchell, he walked straight into a fabulous left hook, which floored Murray, He got up, and the ref allowed him to continue, Before Mitchell landed a few more telling blows to the head, the ref was forced to stop the fight, and what a great fight it was. Redemption for Kevin Mitchell after the Katsidis Debacle. Murray respectfully shaking hands with Mitchell after the fight, and in the post-fight interview, Mitchell said that when he wins a world title, he promises to give Murray a rematch, and deservedly so. I give this fight a 9/10, The only reason for it not being a 10 was that it didn't go the full distance, but what a great fight it was!
Overall I give this card a strong 8/10, although I only really enjoyed the last fight, this 8/10 rating takes into consideration the fact that I decided not to rate the Burns vs Cook fight as it was obviously stopped for a reason not connected to the actual boxing.
Comments please.
Okay now to the fights :
First of all , Franky Gavin vs Curtis Woodhouse was not shown fully in the UK and instead showed highlights, So as far as a review is concerned, I will review the key moments in the fight (this is what sky sport let us see). It seemed a tooth and nail sort of fight, both men had there moments, Gavin fought on the back foot, with Woodhouse managing to connect with more punches than the Franky Gavin corner would of liked. I can't really talk to much about this fight for previous stated reasons but it basically seemed a bit of a brawl. Gavin didn't really dominate like you would of hoped, but at the end of the fight, it went to a split decision, and Gavin got the decision.
Ovil Mckenzie vs Tony Bellew : The first fight was a knock down fest, this fight was quite the opposite, with Tony Bellew using his boxing skill on the backfoot for the whole fight, making Ovil Mckenzie look extremely crude throughout, with very few clean punches connecting from Ovil, Tony Bellew worked the jab and kept his distance, very rarely exchanging in the centre with Ovil Mckenzie, In my opinion this was the right approach, and maybe a world title fight with Nathan Cleverly was lingering in his mind, because he took very few, if any, risks at all. There was only one Big punch that connected from Ovil Mckenzie all night, and this didn't appear to trouble Bellew to much, Bellew comfortably won every round and won a strong Unanimous decision, Without risking getting K.O'd at any point. A good Peformance, but not the fight many people were expecting. I would give it a 6/10.
Next up was Ricky Burns vs Nicky Cook, The world title fight on the card, the fight that some people were looking forward to most, And to be honest, it was a disaster, not taking anything away from either man. Ricky Burns landed 1 shot the the back of Nicky cook early on (around 10 seconds in to round 1) and it sent Nicky cook to the canvas. There was clearly something wrong with his back, and he does have a history of back trouble. After a few Back related knock downs, his corner through the towel in, And he was taken out on a stretcher, I believe the fight lasted just over 1 minute 30 seconds, Ricky Burns did nothing wrong, and it was said by the head of boxing board of control, to be a freak incident, that caused cook this back problem, he was later taken to hospital and it was confirmed by them that there was a bad problem with his back. I am not going to give this fight a rating and see it really as a no contest, But neither man was at fault for this in my opinion.
Okay now on to the fight that I was looking forward to the most, Kevin Mitchell vs John Murray, this fight had been built up a fair bit, A bit of a Grudge match in the sense that this fight was always going to happen somewhere down the line, although both men seem to respect each other a lot. The fight started with Murray using his physical strength advantage to lean on Mitchell , and get inside, throwing a few combinations, Mitchell fought this on the back foot, similar to his performance vs Prescott in many ways. Murray, being the true warrior that he is, walked through punches, before landing combinations, some which seemed to trouble Mitchell, but I don't believe Mitchell was ever in any real serious trouble of being K.O'd. This fight was living up to its expectations, and both men were trading blows with each other. as we got to round 5, I had Murray up 3 rounds to 2, But it seemed a close fight that could go either way, But Murray had the higher work rate in the early goings. Round 7 was the first telling round of the fight, and gave us a real indication of the power of Kevin Mitchell, As he rocked the unbeaten Murray towards the end of round 7. Murray, on shaky legs, managed to get to the end of round 7. In between rounds Murray's corner had been stressing the need to land body shots on Kevin Mitchell, something that Murray never seemed able to do, this mean't that as we got into the second half of the fight, Kevin Mitchell did not seem to tired, and out of the two, Murray seemed the man struggling a bit. Round 8 started with both men landing clean blows early on, Mitchell kept backing off, got trapped on the ropes a couple of times, before managing to get away. As Murray hunted Mitchell, he walked straight into a fabulous left hook, which floored Murray, He got up, and the ref allowed him to continue, Before Mitchell landed a few more telling blows to the head, the ref was forced to stop the fight, and what a great fight it was. Redemption for Kevin Mitchell after the Katsidis Debacle. Murray respectfully shaking hands with Mitchell after the fight, and in the post-fight interview, Mitchell said that when he wins a world title, he promises to give Murray a rematch, and deservedly so. I give this fight a 9/10, The only reason for it not being a 10 was that it didn't go the full distance, but what a great fight it was!
Overall I give this card a strong 8/10, although I only really enjoyed the last fight, this 8/10 rating takes into consideration the fact that I decided not to rate the Burns vs Cook fight as it was obviously stopped for a reason not connected to the actual boxing.
Comments please.
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