Last night Nottingham Ice Arena was home to a fairly lively evening of boxing that saw its boxing son Carl Froch engage in a derby of sorts (excuse the pun) against Damon Hague (who resides from Derby). After all the pre-fight hype that he created for himself, Carl Froch was the man who went home with the prestigious British Middleweight Title, with a quick stoppage of Hague in just one round.
Hennessey Sports also included Howard Eastman on the bill, although against a hastily drafted in Jerry Elliot, rather than the original grudge match against Jorge Sendra. Eastman was able to win on points in a fight that was tougher than ‘The Battersea Bomber' would have perhaps imagined.
It was obvious which fight the bulk of the crowd gathered at the Nottingham Arena were here to see. Local rivalry came to a fore as shouts of “Stand up if you hate Derby!” filled the arena as Damon Hague prepared to walk down to the ring; sounds akin to a football match rather than the sweet science of boxing. The religiously-devoted Hague came into the ring to the strains of Kanye West's “Jesus Walks”, looking focused, staring straight-ahead and ignorant to the boos of the partisan crowd.
Prior to battle commencing there was a minute's silence held in tribute to the football legend Brian Clough; it was a touching moment that brought everyone in the crowd to forget about neighbourly rivalry and suchlike.
The clangs of the bells ushered in the opening round as Hague attempted to begin in a work-man like fashion. Froch meanwhile had a rather arrogant poise, looking casual with his hands kept low (even lower than usual). There was a sense that that Froch was testing the waters and perhaps even playing mind games with his opponent. Froch was giving the impression of looking uninterested…at least for all of say thirty seconds. As the boxers went to work inside Hague was suddenly down, though this was ruled as a slip. A few moments later inside the round and Hague was caught by a lightening hook by ‘The Cobra' and was reacquainted with the canvas. It looked as though Hague wouldn't get up, as he kneeled on one leg but up he did get up. With only a few seconds remaining in the round Froch wasn't about to let his opponent off the hook and capitalised on Hague's dazed mindset. A few flashes of hooks and Hague was on the canvas for his second official knockdown. The bell has sounded for the end of the round but Mickey Vann the referee was not about to let the bewildered but game Hague to continue as he stumbled about on his feet. Froch was jumping up onto the corner of the ring meanwhile, a dream realised and frustrations put to rest.
Before the fight Hague had told me “he'll have to nail me to the canvas” and in all honesty Hague was good to his word, as he showed by stating his desire to continue at the end of the round. Of course, his legs told a different story. Ultimately Froch was just too good and at least backed-up his pre-fight statements. For those hyped-up claims of being Britain's best sportsman delete as appropriate- arrogant, confident, honest…whatever the consensus on his demeanour outside the ring Froch was superbly quick to finish the contest within the confines of the ring.
For Hague the future is uncertain, as it is for many a boxer approaching their mid-thirties after a stoppage defeat. Froch is a different kettle of fish, however, and the future certainly looks bright, such was the impressiveness with which he dispatched of his creditable opponent. There is talk of Robin Reid at some point next year; whether he will live up to the expectations his predications have created is a different matter.
Also fighting was the elusive, eccentric, mysterious… (OK you get the picture) Howard Eastman. Now after the trash talk of Sendra branding his opponent ‘ugly' this was somewhat of an anti-climax. The fact that Howard was not bearing his distinctive bleached goatee seemed to be the topic of conversation, rather than anything about Elliot. In fact the Nigerian, boxing out of Germany, was virtually ignored as he made his entrance.
The atmosphere wasn't helped by the exit of a good portion of fans that'd most likely gone to party with Froch (leaving us writers and hardcore enthusiasts behind to sit through this one). Eastman made his customary slow start, gently prodding his opponent with jabs. It became apparent that Eastman was looking to deploy a stick and move tactic. The first couple of rounds were punctuated by Eastman picking accurate, sweet-looking but hardly earth-shattering punches.
This would prove to be a showcase of his silky skills, making Elliot look like a limited plodder and not exactly exciting the fans. In fact only two of those things were true. Elliot may be limited but he was very game, using his muscular build to really have a go in the inside at Eastman. In the third and fourth rounds ‘The Battersea Bomber' was caught and Elliot was harassing his opponent against the ropes with a barrage of shots. Many were not catching the ducking and diving Eastman but still Elliot was proving he had come to fight.
The fifth round actually provoked some surprise amongst the sleepy atmosphere in the Arena as Elliot used a flurry of shots to force a knockdown of our man Howard. The knockdown wasn't exactly Tarver v. Jones II revisited; rather one of Eastman's gloves was to touch the canvas momentarily.
This proved to be a storm in a teacup as Eastman finally awoke from his brief slumber and used his boxing ability to keep his opponent at distance and rack up the points. He was able to get his Nigerian opponent down in the tenth round, although he almost had to push the stumbling Elliot to the floor to achieve this.
The official final score was 99-91 for Eastman, which I felt was a slightly wider margin than it should have been. I scored the fight 97-93; Eastman outboxed his opponent but at times switched off and it would be unfair to discredit the spirited performance of Elliot who tried to force the fight. A thought popped into my fight halfway through- ‘Memo to someone, somewhere: Get Eastman a proper world-class fight before he falls asleep.' Eastman can only go on for so long outboxing and outclassing game but inferior opponents.
On the undercard Matthew Thirwall lost on points controversially to Jason Collins 58-57. This was the classic boxer (Thirwall) versus fighter (Collins) match-up. Thirwall looked a lot more composed than his opposite number; whilst Collins was wilder using quantity rather than quality in terms of his punches. Collins tried some good bodyshots, though was deducted a point for low blows. The result was booed by the crowd; I had the fight 58-57 for Thirwall, bearing in mind the point deduction. Anyhow it was a close and reasonably absorbing fight.
Cheered on by a section of the crowd who had travelled to see him, Lenny Daws easily outpointed Ernie Smith, winning every round, 60-54. Gilbert Eastman just about beat the willing but limited Clive Johnson on points as Johnson tired after an aggressive start. Eastman started tentatively but began to outsmart Johnson with skill. On his professional debut Darren Barker beat the veteran convincingly on points and looks a good prospect for the future.
Nadeem Siddique brought a bit of glitz to proceedings, with his gold shorts and shoes matching his ring name of ‘The Golden Boy'. Trained by Domenic Ingle there were some similarities with another Ingle fighter- Naseem Hamed. Alright, maybe only a little…Still his low hands, stalking stance with his head stuck out, swaying side to side was reminiscent of the Prince. With ‘SID' shaved into his head ‘The Golden Boy' wanted to put on a show and looked reasonably skilful to match, winning every round to get a points victory.
