Promoter Frank Warren quickly follows up this week’s London Copper Box Arena show with an interesting looking card which takes place at the Echo Arena, Liverpool, next Saturday, 7 December. The show looks like a can’t-miss, involving as it does two of the real evergreens of British boxing, Derry Mathews and Enzo Maccarinelli, who hardly ever fail to entertain.
The main event sees Mathews, 34-8-2 (19), challenging for the WBO European lightweight title against the champion, Warren promoted Irishman Stephen Ormond, 15-1 (7). Although this is not the European title proper, the belt carries with it a guaranteed top-15 ranking with the WBO, whose champion just happens to be fellow Brit, Ricky Burns. Of course, with Burns being in a rival promotional camp, a fight with him somewhere down the line for either Mathews or Ormond would be difficult to make.
Regardless of that, this is an intriguing fight. Ormond is the up and comer, with just one loss on his record, that being to Scotsman Paul Appleby in Glasgow in March 2012. For this writer, that was somewhat of a hometown decision, as Ormond seemed to get much the better of his celtic rival on the night. Appleby aside, however, the quality of Ormond’s opposition has been of a very low calibre and he is facing a massive step up against Mathews on Saturday. Mathews has been starring in high quality matches since 2006 when he won the rather spurious WBU featherweight title against Stephen Foster Jr. The gap in experience between the two is therefore huge.
Mathews has had so many ups and downs in his career that a loss at this stage would possibly see the end of him at top level. Indeed, every match made for Mathews from here on in needs to be carefully considered. He was being lined up to fight Kevin Mitchell on a rival promoter’s card, but his management team sensibly withdrew him from that risky assignment. This was a very wise decision as Derry would have been a big outsider against Mitchell.
Which brings us to Saturday and the fight with Ormond. Derry will be a hot favourite to defeat the far less experienced Irishman. He has height and reach advantages and he must make use of these in order to keep the rampaging little Irishman at bay. He must be mobile and land his heavy shots on Ormond as he constantly chugs forward. The worry for Mathews though is that Ormond is relentless. He is likely to be coming at Derry for all 12 rounds and also seems to have a really good chin. He will, therefore, take some dissuading. This is not going to be easy for Mathews. He will need to be on his game and keep his concentration for all 12 rounds, otherwise he will find himself being dragged into an inside fight where the shorter man will likely be banging his head into Derry’s vulnerable scar-tissue laden face.
Mathews is well aware of the importance of this fight to his future and must be the pick to take a clear points decision after 12 hard, entertaining rounds.
The other veteran fighter on the card is former WBO cruiserweight titleholder, Welshman Enzo Maccarinelli. He defends his hard-won Commonwealth light-heavyweight title against another old timer, 38-year-old Courtney Fry. Maccarinelli, 37-6 (29), was involved in one of the domestic fights of the year in August when he snatched victory from the jaws of defeat by coming from behind to stop Ovill McKenzie, thereby winning the belt he defends on Saturday. It was an absolute thriller, with Enzo looking booked for defeat through most of the fight but coming on late to wear down McKenzie with some of his famed hooks to head and body and eventually punching McKenzie to a standstill. It was a heart-warming show from the popular Welshman who has been written off by just about everyone, his promoter Frank Warren included, over the last couple of years.
A huge amount of credit for Enzo’s renaissance in that fight must go to excellent trainer Gary Lockett, who coaxed and cajoled Enzo in the corner throughout the fight, almost counselling him to victory. It was one of the best corner jobs we have seen for years. Lockett admitted after the fight that Enzo would never be the same fighter that he once was, but that as long as Enzo wished to continue his career, he, Gary, would be there for him.
On Saturday, Enzo should get a much easier ride than he had against McKenzie, as his challenger Courtney Fry, 18-3 (6), is even closer to the end of his career. Courtney was a top amateur, representing Britain in the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000. He also appeared in the amateur world championships and the Commonwealth Games. However, his professional career has never taken off. He did manage to manoeuvre himself into a challenge to Nathan Cleverly for the latter’s British and Commonwealth titles in October 2009. He was battered to defeat by the then fast-rising Nathan on that night. Fry actually quit the sport afterwards, but returned to the ring almost two years later and has, to date, scored five wins over nondescript opposition since then. Fry has therefore done nothing to warrant this shot at such a major title.
Sad to say, I still see another heavy knockout defeat facing Enzo somewhere in the future. However, Fry is not the man to produce this and Enzo should wear him down for a stoppage victory somewhere between rounds six and eight. Even though Enzo should win this comfortably, his dream of taking a world title in a second weight-class would seem to be of the “pipe”-variety.
Another decent fight on the bill has local boy Liam Smith, of the famous fighting family, making the first defence of his British light-middleweight title against Mancunian Mark Thompson. Smith, 15-0-1 (5), has been rather overshadowed by his younger brother Callum’s dramatic rise through the boxing ranks. Liam though is a good young fighter in his own right, and looks to have a solid career ahead of him. He boxed really well to comfortably defeat Erick Ochieng when winning this title in September and we can expect further improvement from him on Saturday.
His opponent, Thompson, 25-3 (15), was a hot prospect himself a few years ago. In January 2010, he defeated former British welterweight champion Kevin McIntyre in an eliminator for that belt. He looked odds on to become champion. It was soon after that though that his career hit a wall. Some unscheduled time spent at Her Majesty’s Pleasure derailed his once promising career. Since returning to the ring in April of last year, Mark has gone 2-2, with one of the defeats coming against German hot-shot Jack Culcay. Thompson boxed quite well that night and was perhaps the victim of a slightly premature stoppage. However, Thompson disappointed when boxing in the Prizefighter tournament in January of this year, being defeated at the semi-final stage by novice Dale Evans. He has not fought since and it is a big ask for him to take on an in-form young champion like Smith. Look for Smith to retain his title with a fairly comfortable points decision.
Also on the card is young super-flyweight Paul Butler, who defends his WBO inter-title against unknown Mexican, Ruben Montoya. Butler, 13-0 (7), is still participating in his ring education and this contest will form another part of that. Montoya comes to Britain with a record of 12-1-1 (8), but on close inspection of that record one notes that he only has one victory over a fighter with a winning slate, and his one loss is to a fighter with a 7-11-3 record. No significant challenge is therefore expected from this particular Mexican and the only question is whether or not Butler will be able to force a stoppage.
Further down the card, look out for two of Warren’s exciting Welsh prospects, Craig Evans and Liam Williams. Both have undefeated records and bags of talent. They really need to be moved faster and with more purpose now as their respective careers have stalled this year.
@RachelAylett1
