Boxing News Boxing News
Last night at Fenton Manor Sports Complex in Stoke, England, IBO welterweight champion Lovemore N’dou and challenger Matthew Hatton fought to a draw.
38 year old N’dou hadn’t been able to spar during training camp due to a cut suffered earlier and inactivity since his title winning effort in July against Phillip N’dou showed up as a lack of offense the early rounds.
Hatton went on the attack in response to N’dou’s reticence but the 28 year old Manchester man wasn’t able to land anything of significance.
As the early rounds became the middle frames, N’dou started to warm up and by the sixth was dictating the pace of the contest.
But the South African native began to tire and the two combatants struggled for control over the next few rounds, each scoring sporadically with neither able to take charge.
The last two rounds featured more of the same and finally the difficult to score bout was over with N’dou keeping his title via a 115-114, 114-115 and 114-114 majority draw on the cards.
N’dou sees his record to 47-11-2 (31) while Hatton drops to 37-4-2 (14). A rematch is expected to take place early next year.
On the undercard, English middleweight titlist Darren McDermott, 17-2-1 (9), bounced back from a loss against Commonwealth king Darren Barker in May to make a successful defense against prospect Danny Butler, 18-2 (3).
It was a thrilling contest as McDermott canvassed Butler in the fifth but had to fight through cuts above both eyes and barely kept his belt with a 96-95 points verdict after ten tough rounds.
Former English lightweight titlist Scott Lawton, 26-5-1 (5), dropped down to super feather for the first time in six years to stop ex-WBU feather beltholder Derry Matthews, 21-4 (11), in the sixth. Matthews has now lost four of his last five, all within the distance.
British and Commonwealth cruiser champ Rob Norton, 32-4-1 (19), outpointed steel-jawed former European title challenger Ismail Abdoul, 32-16-2 (13), over six frames in a non-title affair.
Middleweights Paul Samuels, 19-8-2 (12), and Cello Renda, 18-8-1 (11), went to war, even producing a double knockdown, before Samuels finished off his rival in the third.
