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Norwich, England’s leading exponent of the fistic arts, Jon Thaxton, returns tonight at the Showground in his hometown where the lightweight will make a second bid at the European title as he faces Spain’s Juan Carlos Diaz Melero over a scheduled 12 rounds.
Seasoned southpaw Thaxton, 33-8 (18), turned pro in 1992 and came up the hard way, battling as a light welterweight and proving his toughness once and for all in a thrilling back and forth war with Ricky Hatton for the British title in which “Jono” lost by only four points, 117-113 after twelve brutal rounds.
The fight stands as one of the more difficult in Hatton’s long career and after a failed bid at the Commonwealth crown against big Belfast puncher Eamonn Magee a year and a half later, Thaxton began to campaign as a lightweight.
The stocky Norfolk man ran up 12 straight victories after that, capturing the WBF and British titles in the process and earned a shot at European Champ Yuri Romanov in April of this year at London’s York Hall.
Thaxton was competitive against the Belarus Brit spoiler but was pulled out by his corner in the sixth when cuts suffered during the bout became too severe for a continuation of hostilities.
Facing Thaxton tonight at Norwich will be former Spanish and current European Union titlist Juan Carlos Diaz Melero, 36-1 (19).
Melero previously held the European crown after defeating Italian legend Stefano Zoff in 2005 and defended the Continental trophy against Mihamita Mutu in 2006 before losing the belt to Romanov in December of that year when Melero was KO’d in the third in his hometown of Ciudad Real.
At 34, Thaxton is aware that this could be his last chance to compete for a world title if he can defeat Melero and that extra bit of motivation could put him over the top in what should be a fantastic fight for European honours.
