British Scene Weekend Recap: Norton Retains Title With Draw Against Dolan

Matt Chudley recaps this past Friday night's Sky show.

Rob Norton retained his British and Commonwealth Cruiserweight titles with a controversial draw against David Dolan at the Altrincham Leisure Centre in Chesire to kick off the New Year of domestic action. While house fighter Norton may have been more accurate over the course of the fight, Dolan appeared to have clinched it by sweeping the late rounds with his relentless pressure and activity, and the crowd voiced their disapproval of the outcome.

Dolan made his intentions clear from the start, marauding forward and giving Norton little space and time to get his shots off. Though pushing the fight, single right hands where the extent of Dolan's effective attack and after clinching uncomfortably in the first, Norton began to time the on-rushing challenger in the second.

After bizarrely surrendering himself in a corner in the third and ducking and diving out of Dolan's attack in an act of kidology, Norton went back to timing Dolan in the fourth and was finding great success with the left hook. Refusing to give up on single lead right hands, Dolan had no answer for Norton's accurate counters and was picked off coming in, until finding brief success in the sixth with Norton taking a rest for much of the frame.

Norton went back to work in the seventh and felt aggrieved not to have a knockdown early in the round but was adjudged to have put an off-balance Dolan down with a cuffing shot from the open palm of his glove.

In the eighth round, Dolan's commitment to pressure began to pay dividends as Norton's 37 year old legs where clearly starting to tire. Although still crude and uneducated in his attack, Dolan's activity now appeared to be edging the action, and his growing dominance was punctuated by a stint in the ninth round where he pinned Norton in the corner.

Norton got enough of a second wind to arguably take a share of the 11th round but the pattern of the final quarter of the fight consisted of Dolan's improved stamina allowing him to continue to press forward and work in close while Norton occasionally had his moments countering

Terry O'Connor had Norton up by a 116-113 total, while Phil Edwards had the challenger in front by a point at 115-114 and Dave Parris had it all square at 114-114.

With time running out on his career, Norton will undoubtedly be looking for promoter Ricky Hatton to get a few more big fights and with the European title still vacant, he could well be in the mix to fight for that belt. It would seem a definite possibility, given Hatton's prospering relationship with the EBU that has seen Scott Lawton and Matthew Macklin get the chance to compete for vacant European titles.

With Herbie Hide no longer in line to fight for the vacant WBC title, the possibility of that big domestic contest does exist for Norton, though an attractive fight with Enzo Maccarinelli seems out of the question given the frosty relationship between Hatton and Frank Warren.

Dolan may well decide to take his grievances with the decision up with the British Boxing Board of Control, which could result in a mandated third encounter but will likely get back to the grind of six and eight round undercard fights until another opportunity on the domestic scene presents itself.

On the undercard…

The rematch between Paul Samuels and Cello Renda struggled to live up to the standards of the first fight but still provided a great spectacle. As with their first bout, both fighters hit the canvas and a comeback appeared to be in the making.  A bloodied Renda was put down in the 2nd, but battled back to floor Samuels in the 4th.  His resurgence though was not enough to win the decision, as Samuels took a 77-74 verdict on referee Phil Edwards' card.

Also in action, lightweight Martin Gethin improved to 17-3-1 and captured the English title with a 10 round decision over Graeme Higginson while Beijing Olympian Joe Murray moved out to 6-0 with a 3 round stoppage of previously unbeaten Georgian George Mchedlishvili.

Assuring himself of a shot at the 147lb British title, Mark Thompson bested former beltholder Kevin McIntyre over 10 rounds, sealing the fight with a knockdown in the final round.

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