Froch makes hard work of title defence by Kevin Taylor Feb 18th 2006

Carl Froch returned to London for the first time in three years to stop the tough Australian Dale Westerman in the ninth round to retain his Commonwealth super-middleweight title at the York Hall in Bethnal Green last night. But it was not all plain sailing for Froch who was caught by some good punches early on but eventually ground down the game 36-year-old challenger for a fifth successful defence. Froch damaged his right arm in the third round when Westerman's elbow caught his bicep but the injury will not stop his next defence of both his British and Commonwealth titles at the King's Hall in Belfast on March 31 against Brian Magee. Westerman gave the champion a fair amount of trouble, he had dropped down from light-heavyweight and proved a rugged opponent, but Froch made his extra class tell as he gradually broke up the Australian. With Westerman bleeding badly from the mouth and seemingly running on empty, referee John Keane stepped in after one minute and 45 seconds of round nine much to the annoyance of the Australian corner. The Australian wasn't in any particular trouble but it looked to be the right decision by the referee. The shaven-headed visitor enjoyed his success in the opening rounds, catching Froch repeatedly with overhand rights and left hooks as he came forward time and time again against the timid Froch who didn't make the most of his big height advantage. But Froch was building up a good points lead on my card switching from his jab to the body before finally establishing total control. Froch said afterwards: "It wasn't the best of Carl Froch. I took my time and I got hit with a couple of shots I shouldn't have got hit with. "I took him a little bit lightly - but it won't happen again. The higher I go, the better I will be." Magee, watching from ringside, claims he saw little to worry him as he gears up for his clash with the champion. "It was tougher than I expected for Froch. I didn't see anything from him that I didn't expect and I'm convinced I can beat him. "I don't see why the injury should affect our fight. You pick up things like that all the time during sparring." Frank Maloney said last night “We shouldn't look too much into the fight last night Froch will be more determined in Belfast” Jon Thaxton returned to the York Hall almost ten years to the day since he knocked out the then British champion Paul ‘Scrap-Iron' Ryan in the first round back in 1996 and almost performed the same feat when he put down veteran Alan Temple after just fifteen seconds of the bout with a good right hook. Temple was down again at almost the same point in the second round when another right caught Temple on top of his head and put him down. Temple showed great determination to get back up and in fact came back into the fight during the third and fourth as Thaxton seemed to move down a gear and began just throwing single shots and Temple started to get his own southpaw jab working. The fifth saw referee Ian John Lewis take a time out to check a cut that appeared over Temple's right eye and a minute later a left hook put Temple down again and this time although again he was up at eight referee Lewis decided he'd seen enough and he called it off. For Thaxton it was his eighth win on the trot and his fifth, four of them by stoppage since his return to the ring following a two-year ‘retirement' following a car accident. Afterwards Thaxton again made it clear that he would fight anyone, anywhere, anytime and a shot at the British title must be beckoning the for the likeable Norwich lightweight. More to follow. Photos Copyright Karl Stubbs, www.karlstubbs.com

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