By Oli Smith

The Bolton Arena played host to an action packed night of British boxing, which would ultimately be remembered for a fight that is sure to be a top contender for domestic fight of the year honors. Jamie Moore and Ryan Rhodes rocked the crowd with their ring war. Moore had been tipped for big things, a future fight with Julio Cesar Chavez Jr in a final eliminator seemed to be on the horizon. Only Ryan Rhodes stood in his way. Rhodes has been enjoying the twilight of his career, since losing against Gary Lockett for the relatively minor WBU World Middleweight title; he has won all seven times, five by knock out. Jamie Moore is also riding a wave of success, having gained momentum with a 10th round KO of now European Middleweight champion Matthew Macklin, he entered the ring tonight as the overwhelming favorite to retain his European title at Light Middleweight and move on to bigger things.

The first round went according to plan as Moore stalked Rhodes and menacingly trapped him against the ropes. Rhodes seemed quite tense and threw ragged shots well wide of the mark, Moore capitalised with short, sharp hooks to the body. His game plan was obvious, work the body of the older man, break him down and take him out.

Rhodes brought his trademark awkwardness to the ring, having come out of the same boxing school as Naseem Hamed and Johnny Nelson, he used his unorthodox approach to neutralise Moore where possible. Through the early rounds, attempts to turn the tide against Moore were all but futile. The champion’s sheer size and strength alone were enough to see off any challenge from the opposite corner.

Neither man would back down from their game plan though. Rhodes took the surprising decision to trade with Moore whenever possible, both men have similar knockout percentages, yet they looked a world apart when trading on the inside. Rhodes shots bounced off the champion’s gloves, occasionally getting through but never causing him any concern. It wasn’t until the fifth round that Rhodes put any snap in his punches, up until that point there had been little intent behind his work and he had also soaked up a fair amount of punishment as Moore continued to press on.

A low blow midway through the fifth round stopped Rhodes in his tracks, though unintentional it had stopped the momentum he had gained up until that point in the round. Like the consummate professionals both men are, they got straight back to work, Moore applied his relentless pressure whilst Rhodes ducked, feinted and pot shotted his way out of trouble.

Rhodes started the sixth round, five rounds down on this score card and as if sensing the fight way slipping away from him, he called upon his 14 years of experience and stepped up through the gears. Moore put increasing pressure on the challenger, but this time Rhodes took the initiate, the counter-puncher turned aggressor, landing venomous punches off the back foot he backed Moore up for the first time.

Yet Moore refused to be beaten back, having only seconds before looked like he had punched himself out, a perfectly timed left hook rocked Rhodes to his boots, and once again the momentum swung in the champion’s favor. The round finished spectacularly as both men traded blows, Rhodes snapped his right hand through Moore’s guard, who for the first time had started to look vulnerable to Rhode’s power.

At the start of the seventh, Rhodes changed tactics again and began to utilise the whole ring to his advantage, a tactic most had assumed he would implement from the start. As Moore cut off the ring both men engaged, a massive right hook from Rhodes landed flush on Moore’s chin and knocked the wind from his sails, a small step back, and then a delayed reaction saw Moore’s legs crumble beneath him as he hit the deck hard.

At first he seemed to struggle, but he took his time and rose at the count of eight. Moore hasn’t been blessed with the cast iron chin of a Margarito or a Hagler as his seven trips to the canvass will attest. Some people are born with outstanding resilience, but Moore isn’t one of them. The upshot is he knew exactly what to do to get himself up and back on his feet. He got up and came out swinging. Rhodes didn’t have the opportunity to look for the knockout as Moore’s head cleared quickly and he looked to take charge once again.

A beautiful combination from Jamie Moore seemed to have Rhodes in trouble, when somewhat inexplicably, Moore walked onto the shot that knocked the fight out of him. Having kept his chin tucked right in all night, Moore all but looked right at his opponent with his hands down and his chin up. Rhodes didn’t need a clearer invitation than that.

A massive shot sent Moore reeling against the ropes and Rhodes went in for the kill. The follow up assault saw referee Howard John Foster jump in to save the defenseless Moore from taking any more punishment.

And with that dramatic turnaround Rhodes has re-ignited his career which he has spent the past three years re-building. Will the same opportunities that were open to Moore be open to the new European champion? Only time will tell. At any rate, Rhodes has earned the European title the hard way and there are plenty of good fights to be made at this level, should the avenues to a third world title shot become closed off. A more pertinent question however, is where Jamie Moore goes from here. In his brief post-fight interview he mentioned that the weight might have been an issue. Certainly he is a massive 154lb’er and would fill out a Middleweight frame quite easily. Should he take this path, a tantalising rematch with newly crowned European Middleweight champion Matthew Macklin would surely be on the cards, and perhaps an opportunity to pull his career back from the brink.

In the second title fight of the night, Gary Davies and Ian Napa went head to head for the British Bantamweight strap. Napa came off a loss in his last fight, defending his European title against the very tricky Malik Bouzaine. At 5’’1 and with only one knockout from his 18 victories he has struggled to overcome adversity against difficult foes, as he doesn’t have the power to change the momentum of a fight.

Gary Davies meanwhile is a relative novice, with a 9-2-1 record; he won the vacant title in his last fight, and couldn’t have wished for a more difficult first defence. Yet he started the fight offensively, clearly able to walk through the shots from the much smaller Napa, he pressed on. Yet it was Napa would repeatedly got the upper hand. Although Davies remained aggressive his inexperience showed as he was never able to deal effectively with Napa’s slick boxing.

As the rounds wore on, Napa’s punches became more hurtful and they started to buckle the champion’s legs. To his credit Davies fought on and kept trying to find a way through. His work rate allowed the rounds to be scored close, but ultimately he fell short against one of Britain’s best pure boxers. The scorecards had Napa retain the title he won against Jason Booth two years ago by majority decision. Clearly he is above this level and needs to seek out new challenges yet his desperate lack of power will always be his stumbling block as the quality of competition increases. Whilst there is no doubt over his boxing abilities, he simply can’t compare to world class operators like Ivan Calderon who find ways to win when they can’t fall back on power. Yet nothing can be taken away from him tonight, he earned the British title back, and with any luck will likely compete for the European title sooner rather than later.

In the last title fight of the evening, the ever rugged Chris Edwards defended his British Flyweight title against Shinny Bayaar. This was to be Edwards’ third defense of the title he won from Wayne Bloy, whilst a record of 13-13-3 might suggest a walk over for Shinny Bayaar, Edwards’ reputation for never being in a dull fight gave the challenger plenty to think about. 

From the opening rounds it was clear that Bayaar belonged in a different class to Edwards, his punches were sharper, and his combos were quicker and more effective. Not to be deterred, Edwards still made a decent fight out of it; he dug in deep and refused to back down.

By the fifth round Edwards had warmed into the fight and made Bayaar miss with subtle head and body movement, small changes to his game plan were implemented to try and neutralise Bayaar’s constant pressure. For the most part they worked, the rounds became closer to call, if not winning them, he made a good case for not losing them.

Shinny Bayaar has been matched tough his entire career, and is far better than his 14-4-1 record shows. Bayaar was able to take control of the fight, for the most part, and even when on the back foot he made sure to throw something back at the champion. The judges’ scorecards 117-112, 113-115, 115-113 to Shinny Bayar by split decision.