On the 15th of March, the Echo Arena in Liverpool was the host of an action packed night of boxing with many big British names fighting on the card.
The night started off with London’s Kevin Mitchell in an eight round lightweight contest against an unspectacular opponent in Mikheil Avakyan. Mitchell completely dominated the action from the opening bell, dropping the Georgian twice in the first round and finishing him off, in the second, with a vicious left hook.
Despite this impressive performance it was clear that Mitchell’s opponent wasn’t even in the same league, as the Londoner, with even promoter Eddie Hearn describing Avakyan as “shit” and “not as good as expected.” Mitchell is now hoping his next fight will be for a World title – with it looking like he could potentially fight Miguel Vazquez for the IBF Championship later on this year.
Next up was Liverpool’s own Neil Perkins taking on durable boxing veteran Erick Ochieng. Perkins dropped Ochieng in the second round with a stiff jab, which didn’t affect Ochieng as he seemed to slip at the point of contact. Perkins best work in the fight came in the third round, as he backed the Kenyan to the ropes and threw multiple combinations hurting Ochieng on numerous occasions throughout the round. The Liverpudlian would go on to win by decision with the scorecard being 78-76; which in it’s self was controversial because it looked from ringside that Ocheng hardly won any rounds and without the knock down he would’ve escaped with a draw.
Another big name who fought on the card was Kell Brook, who was competing against Mexican Alvaro Robles in a ten round contest. Brook looked relaxed in the early rounds – just picking his shots and staying away from Robles’s punches, however the Sheffield man was getting caught with a few right hands, over the top, but the Mexican’s punches had no effect on the determined Brook. Just as it seemed Kell was cruising to a points victory Robles’s corner, in the 8th round, threw in the towel after the beating Brook dished out on the poor Mexican. Brook’s next fight will be for the IBF title, as he is the mandatory challenger. The winner of Shawn Porter vs Paulie Malignaggi must face Brook in the Summer or vacate his belt. We will finally see this year if Brook can finally fulfill his dream and truly live up to his tremendous reputation as the “Special One.”
The co-main event of the evening was Rocky Fielding vs Charles Adamu, which was originally supposed to be for Fielding’s Commonwealth Super Middleweight title – however with Fielding amazingly coming in six pounds over the Super Middleweight limit – he was stripped of his belt with this fight no longer being a defense just an opportunity for Adamu to win the championship. Fielding would cruise to an easy 120-108 victory on all three judges scorecards in a lack-luster match up. This was Fielding’s first time going the full twelve round distance proving the Scouser, has no problem with endurance. Next for Fielding could possibly be an all Liverpudlian showdown vs Paul Smith for Smith’s British title; that’s if Smith doesn’t pursue the WBO title, as he is ranked number four by that governing body.
The main event of the evening was Tony “Bomber” Bellew making his Cruiserweight debut against Russian Valery Brudov, which had the makings of an epic contest and boy it didn’t disappoint. The first major talking point of the fight came in the third round, when Tony launched a straight right hand right through the Russian’s guard knocking him down heavily. Brudov would recover and start to push forward trying to put Tony under pressure – this game plan back-fired in the sixth round when the Liverpudlian, once again, dropped Brudov with Brudov just managing to get back onto his feet – luckily enough for the Russian the bell sounded and he survived the round.
In the seventh round disaster for Tony, as he lost focus for just a matter of seconds and Bang! Brudov connects with a superb right hand over the top which clearly stunned Bomber, it looked potentially like Tony was on the verge of being stopped when Brudov stupidly hit Tony low and gave him a chance to take a break and fully recover.
On to the last round Brudov knowing, by this point, he needed a knock out to win was just throwing everything he had left and coming straight forward then all of a sudden with less than a minute to go in the final round both fighter threw left hooks with Tony’s landing first knocking the Russian completely out cold. Finally, one of Bellew’s bombs got the job done. What a superb fight and an excellent way to end the show hopefully Matchroom will be putting on another big event in Liverpool in the very near future.
