Battle On The Mersey Review

We were in attendance at the Echo Arena, Liverpool for this past weekend’s Matchroom show aptly titled “Battle On The Mersey” which provided fans with some great highs and some sad lows.

The main event of the show pitted Paul Butler against Stuart Hall in a battle to become the mandatory challenger for the WBA bantamweight title. The fight itself was quite one sided with Butler being the younger, fresher and sharper man always beating Hall to the punch. The fight went the distance and the scorecards were 117-111, 118-110 (x2)

Under the guidance of new trainer Joe Gallagher, Butler aims to become a champion once again and looks set to face current holder and fellow Brit Jamie McDonnell, a fight Eddie Hearn is keen to set up.

O’Hara Davies made his return to the ring squaring off against Liverpool’s Tom Farrell, in what was a clinical and devastating display of punching power from Davies. Farrell was knocked down heavy in the first and continued to hit the canvas in the subsequent rounds thus prompting a lot of ringside observers to question why the corner didn’t pull Farrell out sooner. Davies picked up the stoppage win in the sixth round after a brave display from “Fazza” and was pleased with his performance on the night.

Sean “Masher” Dodd continued his fairy tale story with a dominating performance over fellow scouser Tom Stalker. Dodd retained his Commonwealth lightweight title as he picked up a unanimous decision with the scores reading 118-111 on all three cards. Stalker did have his moments in the fight but the brash no nonsense style of Dodd was too much for Stalker to contend with and he took some heavy shots throughout the fight. The “Masher” Dodd story marches on, whilst Tom Stalker will be left pondering his future.

Rocky Fielding produced a career best performance as he picked the Commonwealth Super Middleweight title to his collection as he stopped opponent David Brophy in the first round. Rocky came out the blocks flying as he caught Brophy with a number of big shots which prompted the referee to intervene after 2.18 of the first round. At the post fight presser Eddie Hearn suggested that Fielding may be in line for a European title shot next.

Anthony “The Machine” Fowler made it a third stoppage win in a row against the normally durable Jay Byrne in the fourth round. Fowler, who is currently under the tutelage of Dave Coldwell, impressed the home fans with a blitzing performance working well to the head and body with a great variety of punch combinations with ultimately wore Byrne down.

Miss GB Natasha Jonas, looked punch perfect as she picked up her second win in as many fights over Bojana Libisezewska. Jonas timed her shots very well much to the delight of the local support. The fight was stopped in the fourth round and both Eddie Hearn and trainer Joe Gallagher agree that she is not long away from a title shot.

In earlier action on the bill, Dereck Chisora, Scott Fitzgerald and Craig Glover also picked up stoppage victories. For Chisora this was return to the ring to shake of the ring rust , he is now on the hunt for a return with Dillian Whyte.

Check out what Eddie Hearn had to say about the show in our post presser interview

#boxing #liverpool #battleonthemersey #seandodd #rockyfielding #natashajonas #anthontyfowler