This exciting card was headlined by Scott Quigg (30-0-2) defending his WBA regular title against former world champion Kiko Martinez (32-5-0) and Anthony Crolla (29-4-2)challenging for a world title against Columbian Darleys Perez (32-1-0).
Sam Eggington facing Glen Foot for the British and Commonwealth Welterweight titles, Chris Jenkins was fighting Tyron Nurse for the vacant British Super-lightweight title, Martin Murray in another stay busy fight against Mirzet Bajrektarevic, young cruiserweight Jack Massey against Martin Grainger, Jono Caroll facing Barrington Brown, Hosea Burton facing Nathan King, Liam Taylor facing Mark McKray, Marcus Morrison facing Laszlo Fazekas, Jeff Saunders facing Istvan Kiss and lastly Charlie Edwards facing Juan Hinostroza.
Anthony Crolla ended up with a draw in a closely contested fight with Darleys Perez, a fight which most people thought he had just edged. The fight was initially called a split draw (114-113, 111-116, 113-113); due to an issue with the scorecards, this was then changed to a majority draw (113-113, 111-116, 113-113). Most observers had Crolla winning the fight by a round or two and many had him winning by even more due to Perez having two points deducted for low blows.
Crolla boxed well in the fight surpassing most people’s expectations, especially after the long layoff due to troubles earlier in the year which had left him doubting if he could ever step into the ring again.
He started strongly moving in and out constantly on the front foot with an accurate, boxing on the outside and picking off Perez with his Jab, he managed to stun Perez in the second round. He carried on boxing well through the fight making his opponent miss with many of his shots, sticking to an excellent game plan devised with the help of trainer Joe Gallagher .There was a bit of a lull towards the middle of the fight but Crolla was still doing the more accurate work. Later in the fight Perez rallied and put a lot more pressure on Crolla but some of this work was ruined by constant low blows from the champion resulting in two points being deducted.
When the bell rang the arena was buzzing thinking we had a new British world champion, however this slowly turned to a stunned silence when the draw was announced.
After the fight Crolla stated "It was a big blow and I'm just trying to take the positives from it," he said. "I think it was a career-best performance and I'll watch it back.
"I'd love to have a rematch and hopefully that can be sorted. I’d like to take him back to Manchester and get that arena rocking again."
In the other headline fight Scott Quigg stopped tough Spaniard Kiko Martinez in the second round; Martinez had previously been stopped in nine and lost a decision to Quigg’s big rival Carl Frampton so this fight was expected to be a tough night for Quigg.
Martinez started strongly getting the better of the exchanges in the opening round forcing Quigg onto the back foot and cementing the early thoughts of it being a hard 12 round war. However in the second round Quigg dug in and caught Martinez with a powerful uppercut and then swarmed him with hooks putting him on the canvas. Martinez got up fairly quickly but was on wobbly legs and then Quigg jumped on him hitting him with several hooks and dropping him again with a powerful clean right, Martinez made it to his feet but Terry O’Conner waved the fight off with Martinez in no position to continue.
After the fight Quigg talked up a fight with Frampton stating "I've always wanted the fight. The chance to prove I'm the best, prove I can beat him if he wants to get in the ring with me," said Quigg. "If he wants the fight, I'm here."
With this kind of performance it sent out a statement to the rest of the Super-Bantamweight division, with Eddie Hearn has talking up a fight with the Filipino Flash Nonito Donaire or Cuban superstar and WBA super champion Guillermo Rigondeaux.
Sam Eggington faced off with Glen Foot for the Commonwealth and vacant British Welterweight titles; the fight started off evenly but as the fight went on Eggington started to dominate. Foot was deducted a point for holding and warned for using his head. Eggington used his superior reach and boxed well; he started to up the pressure in the seventh and looked like he might be able to stop Foot. The fight was over in the next round, due to the cut Foot had received earlier in the fight from a class of heads worsening, the fight was then over to the judges who had Eggington as a comfortable winner.
This win for Eggington puts him in a great position and there was a lot of talk of a possible match up with another of Matchrooms Midland starts Frankie Gavin.
Chris Jenkins and Tyron Nurse faced off for the British Super-Lightweight title, Jenkins started off quickly putting a lot of pressure on Nurse who was struggling to avoid many of Jenkins shots due to fighting with his hands low and trying a Mayweather like shoulder roll. The fight started to become more of an even match up after a few rounds with Nurse keeping his hands up and getting in some good counter punches. As the fight continued Jenkins seemed to tire and struggled with a cut, however he came back well and tried to put Nurse on the back foot again, the fight overall was a bit of a messy affair and ended in majority draw. Both fighters thought they had done enough to win but most casual observers had Nurse winning a close fight.
Martin Murray stopped Mirzet Bajrektarevic in the fifth round and although Murray was clearly winning the fight even he stated after the fight he thought the stoppage was very premature. Murray is now looking for a big fight later in the year after the two stay busy fights he has had over the last few weeks.
Jack Massey, Marcus Morrison, Hosea Burton, Charlie Edwards, Jono Carroll and Liam Taylor all won on points, with the Carroll fight going to the cards during the fight due to a bad cut caused by an earlier clash of heads. Liam Taylor was dropped heavily with just over 10 seconds to go in the fourth after out boxing his opponent and was lucky to recover enough to make the final bell as he was still on shaky legs even after the fight.
Jeff Saunders stopped Istvan Kiss with a vicious body shot only 15 seconds into the first round improving to 3-0 with all fights ending in first round knockouts.
-
You want more boxing news?
Tons more fresh new updates have hit our Boxing news wire on our home page (DoghouseBoxing.com) - Also never miss a punch, check with our full archivesfor today and yesterday's content at: Archive / News Wire
For much more, check out Boxing's largest daily news wire featured on our home page here at Doghouse Boxing.
