Championship Boxing
Screened between ITV1 and ITV4
Commentators - John Rawling and Duke McKenzie
Venue - The O2 Arena, Old Millenium Dome Site, London
Vacant WBO Fetaherweight Championship
Nicky Cooke (Eng) Vs Stephen Luevano (USA)
The first of three fights kicked off with the only World title fight on the bill. The fact this is considered the undercard, even though in terms of class it was the highest level fight of the night, shows how much hype and personality count for, sometimes in favour of quality when it comes to modern boxing.
The Californian away from home started strongly, clearly taking the first round and knocking the Londener down for the first time in the second. It set the tone of the fight, the American was consistantly sharper throughout the first five rounds and clearly built up a big lead.
In rounds 6 and 7 Cooke staged something of a comback, suddenly looking like he had some energy and caught the American with a good range of head shots. It was not to last however. Come the eighth Luevano re-establsihed his position with two knockdowns. He took Cooke down again in the ninth for the final time as Cooke failed to beat the count.
Cooke's attempt to become World Champion on home turf failed, he gave a reasonable account of himself but was outclassed by the American who can now move on to bigger and better things.
RESULT - Luevano wins by 9th round KO and wins the WBO Featherweight Championsip
Commonweath Lightweight Championship
Willie Limond (champion) (Sco) Vs Amir Khan (Eng)
This was Amir Khan's first shot at a proffessional title after 12 straight wins. Critics have said he has not been tested yet, Limond would prove to be such a test.
Unlike in so many of Khan's previous fights, Limond was not overwealmed by the task. He stood his ground when the early Khans onslaught came, and even landed with some fine shots of his own in the openeing rounds.
The longer the fight went the more Limond gained in confidence. Khan was looking uncharacteristically slow and Limond beat him to the punch again and again. As we moved into the second half of the fight, would Limond's extra experience at long distant fights tell.
In round 7 it seemed so, Limond let go an onslught of four head punches that eventually sent Khan to the canvass. Khan got up but looked completely disorganised for the rest of the round. Limond however, is not a big puncher and did not put his man away when he had the chance.
In the eighth Khan turned it around. Almost as if the knockdown was a wake-up call. He scored a kncokdown himself with punches that it later emerged broke the jaw of Limond. Limond managed to get up and survive the round but from here there was only one winner. Khan dominated the ninth and at the end of round nine, Limonds corner withdrew their man, leaving Khan with his first title.
Result - Khan wins due to Limond withdrawal at the end of the 9th round and is the new Commonwealth Lighweight Champion
Commonwealth Heaveyweight Championship
Matt Skelton (Champion) (Eng) Vs Michael Sprott (Eng)
By contrast to the previous two fights, this supposed heaveyweight world title eliminator was a real stinker. On the evidence of tonight putting either of these two in against a real champion would frankly be a joke.
Sprott actually started quite brightly, landing some good shots in the first to take the round against an opponent who barely threw a single punch. From round 2 the fight descended in a farce.
Skelton held on to Sprott at every chance he got, using this to then throw boddt punches from the clinch. Being the bigger man Skelton got the better of these ugly exhanges. When they did box from distance, barely anyone threw a punch until Skelton was able to hold on again.
By round 4 the boos around the arena summed the fight up perfectly. Neither man can shirk the blame, Sprott was bearly throwing a punch, Skelton was happy to just hold and turn this into a wrestling match. Boring does not even begin to describe it.
Most rounds were impossible to score as neither man did anything. Skelton landed with a couple of good body shots in the 6th and the nineth, Sprott landd one good shot in the 4th, thats how tedious the fight was, that one good shot would take the round.
As we got to the 12th, the announcer told us it was 'the last round', cue ironic cheers. Neither man put any more effort into the last round than the rest of the fight and thankfully the bell sounded to chants of 'What a load of rubbish.' Saddly we had to have the scorecards decide a winner, shame as in reality both men were losers. I personally scored it 118-117 to Skelton with 7 drawn rounds due to the tedium, the real cards had it 117-113 and 115-114 to Skelton, with one drawn at 114-114, so the middle card agreed with my one round analysis, few will disagree this was a simply terrible fight.
RESULT - Skelton wins by majoirty decision on points and retains the Commonwealth Heaveyweight Championship
