Liverpool’s Callum Smith (18-0, 13 KOs) annihilated Rocky Fielding (21-1, 12 KOS) in one round to claim the British Super-Middleweight title at the Echo Arena on Saturday the 7th November.
Smith dropped Fielding in the opening moments of the fight with a strong left uppercut. Fielding was dropped twice more before the referee waved the fight over. It was a sensational end to the fight, but despite the intense build up there was no animosity between both fighters as Fielding congratulated Smith afterwards on his win.
The three remaining Smith brothers were at ringside cheering their brother to victory and they now have made history as the first four brothers to hold a British title.
Smith’s trainer Joe Gallagher told Sky Sports in his post-fight interview that his fighter wouldn’t be holding on to the British title for too long. With the win Smith became the mandatory challenger to WBC Super-Middleweight champion Badou Jack. At ringside Smith’s promoter Eddie Hearn told Sky Sports that he was confident that that was a fight Smith could win.
On the undercard, former WBO Lightweight World Champion Ricky Burns (39-5-1, 13 KOs) continued to rebuild his career following successive defeats with an eleventh round stoppage of Australia’s Josh King (20-4, 9 KOs). With the win Burns claims the vacant WBO International Lightweight title.
Meanwhile across the Atlantic, WBO World Welterweight Champion Timothy Bradley Jr (33-1-1, 13 KOs) successfully defended his title with a ninth round stoppage of Brandon Rios (33-3-1, 24 KOs) at the Thomas and Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada.
This was Bradley’s first fight with his new trainer Teddy Atlas and his first knockout since 2011. He demonstrated good movement and was more aggressive than his opponent, with compubox numbers indicating that Bradley landed 45 percent of his punches compared to 18 percent for Rios. The stoppage came in the ninth round as a result of two knockdowns that took the fight completely out of Rios.
It was hard to not look impressive against Rios who was uncharacteristically sluggish in this fight. It had a lot to do with the fact that Rios had ballooned to 170 pounds in weight in the time between the weigh in and the first bell. He did not seem to have any sense of urgency in his work, in fact he looked a shadow of his former self. After the fight Rios announced his retirement, which is probably for the best considering the ring wars he has been in and the struggle with his weight.
Following this impressive victory, Bradley has been mentioned as a potential opponent for his old foe Manny Pacquiao. It remains to be seen if both these veterans would be willing to lay it on the line for a third time but certainly Bradley has demonstrated that he deserves his place among the elite fighters in the Welterweight division.
Other results;
Vasyl Lomachenko beat Romulo Koasicha by KO 10 (WBO World Featherweight Title) Thomas & Mack Centre
Ruslan Provodnikov beat Jesus Alvarez Rodriguez by TKO 4, (Super-Lightweight) Salle des Etoiles, Monte Carlo
Scotty Cardle beat Sean Dodd by TKO 12 (British Lightweight), Echo Arena, Liverpool.
