British Scene Weekend Recap: O'Donnell & Fury Victorious at York Hall

Andrew Fruman recaps this past Friday's Shobox double-header.

Shobox paid a visit to London’s venerable York Hall this past Friday night for a double-header featuring British youngsters John O’Donnell and Tyson Fury.

In the twelve round main-event, O’Donnell took a 118-112 decision from American Terrance Cauthen in a cagey battle of southpaws.

O’Donnell pushed the pace from the start, steadily moving forward in every round while Cauthen tried to limit exchanges with plenty of lateral movement. When O’Donnell did close the gap, he often found his right arm locked up by the veteran American but still managed to hammer home a steady diet of hooks to Cauthen’s mid-section.

O’Donnell also used his right jab to good effect, while mixing in the occasional uppercut on the inside and straight left from range.

In response to O’Donnell’s pressure, the visiting man picked his spots to jump in with his own right hook while letting loose with the occasional combination. Cauthen had his moments over the first half of the bout, but the body shots he absorbed along with all the early movement took away much of his energy. The 34 year old battled hard until the end, but was noticeably tired over the last few rounds while O'Donnell looked strong until the final bell.

Overall, it was a convincing win for the local fighter and a good learning experience as he likely picked up a thing or two from going twelve with the clever veteran.

Tyson Fury handily beat an overmatched Rich Power in the main undercard bout, though it was not the best of outings for the giant heavyweight. Fury clearly won every round of the fight against the slow moving and inexperienced late replacement, but his conditioning left plenty to be desired and his work over the last few rounds was rarely precise.

Fury looked sharp early, using his rangy left jab to set a comfortable distance while banging home heavy right hands to easily win the opening two rounds. He upped the tempo of the bout in the third and mixed in some solid body shots to his attack to batter Power through the middle rounds.

Power took a shellacking during these sessions and his body language really showed the effects of the pace, but Fury’s technique gradually started to fall apart at the same time.

The exhausted Power did have one good moment late in the sixth round, landing a crunching uppercut that sent Fury’s mouth-piece flying. Fury took the flush shot well though, and let his hands go immediately in response before bulling the American southpaw into the corner.

Power looked completely spent and ready for the taking over the final two rounds, but Fury struggled to land cleanly with his frequent, though ragged attacks, failing to bring about the seemingly imminent stoppage.

Referee Jeff Hinds scored the bout 80-72 for the still undefeated big man, but Fury will have to lose some pounds and dramatically improve his stamina if he’s going to one day make any noise against world class opposition.

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