Saturday Fight Night, May 28th

Commonwealth Bantamweight Title: Jamie McDonnell UD12 Nick Otieno

McDonnell was defending both his European and Commonwealth titles against the Kenyan, but took a while to settle into the fight properly. He had the height and weight advantage, but was forced onto the back foot from the opening bell. Otieno had a compact defence with no extraneous movement and pushed forward at every opportunity, forcing McDonnell onto the move in a pattern that continued for first few rounds.

It looked from early on as if neither man had the power to properly hurt the other, and so it transpired. In the fifth McDonnell put together his first decent combination , which stoppedOtieno in his tracks for the first time, if not actually hurting him. Up until then the rounds had been fairly even with neither man making major inroads.

As the fight wore on McDonnell tried to be more physical in stopping Otieno marching forward, catching him with a few more punches, and generally getting the better of exchanges, even though he had to take a few shots on the way out. At no time did he look in trouble.

The tenth was his best round and a number of good combinations seemed to take a fair amount of the fight out of Otieno, and for the rest of the bout McDonnell was fairly comfortable. Though it was a decent performance in the end the first half was not a great advert for his skills.


English Junior Welterweight Title: Nigel Wright UD10 Nicki Smedley

This was a case of an old pro out-experiencing a younger prospect. Smedley came in with a decent reputation and had a touch of the Ingle swagger about him, but failed to find the tools to get past a veteran with better basic skills.

Wright is a southpaw with a solid stance and simple defence, whereas Smedley often had his hands low and looked to just sway out of the way of shots. The problem is that he didn't have the balance to then counter-punch effectively, but Wright had the ability to close the gap and crowd him out.

The best combinations came from Wright who would lead with a feint to put Smedley out of position before throwing combinations, whereas Smedley too often threw single punches without a firm footing. As is the way with punchers he managed to catch Wright properly once, but it was in the last round and by then he was a long way behind on the scorecard.

It was a fairly comfortable night for the older boxer all in all, but Smedley will need to learn how to get inside a defence and keep better balance and poise when coming under attack. One to chalk down to experience.