By Niall Doran
Wow what a weekend of fights just gone. Sometimes boxing really surprises you and this weekend certainly provided a few interesting results.
Starting off in Liverpool, what an evening of fights right through the card. In the co main event between Derry Matthews and Anthony Crolla fans were left frustrated with the ultimate result of a draw. The fight proved to be a classic. It started off as a bit of a chess match in the early rounds, with maybe Crolla getting the better of the tactics with his in and out attacks. However as the fight wore on Matthews started landing his jab on Crolla who at times seemed to be a little stuck between game plans. The fight really started to liven up towards the championship rounds with Crolla landing some telling body shots on Matthews. Matthews provided the punch of the fight with a huge right hand in the 8th which was shrugged off by Crolla as if it was nothing, when clearly it effected him. Going into the final rounds it appeared Crolla needed to really rally if he was to catch up on the scorecards. He did exactly that and showed tremendous heart to win in my opinion the final few rounds. I had the fight scored Crolla by a round. With the draw announced it can only mean we will see the rubber match now between these two ultra competitive and evenly matched prize fighters.
In the main event of the evening between Tony Bellew and Isac Chilemba I was a little but disappointed in the performance from the bomber. He started off strong in the early rounds and I really thought he would dominate the fight. However as the fight reached the half way point Bellew looked to take a bit of a breather which let Chilemba back into the fight. Chimemba proved to be very slick, clever and fast. A number of the rounds could have gone either way but I though Chilemba finished the bout the stronger of the two. Bellew felt aggrieved by the draw, which he might have good reason to. But for me he did not quiet do enough to really prove that he should be the number one contender for Chad Dawson. I was expecting a performance that matched his pre fight talk before the fight but to be honest his tempo in the fight was a lot slower than his mouth in the build up. I’m still a big fan of Tony but I think he needs to go back to the drawing board and have maybe another 2 or 3 fights before taking on someone of the class of Chad Dawson.
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