Thomas Costello vs Danny Butler
Last night I went to the Wolverhampton civic hall for a local card, most of it was decent enough but the standard fare of local guys with chunks of supporters beating British journeymen or Eastern Europeans, most of whom are happy to give it enough of a go to not get knocked out.
The main event was a 10 rounder for the English middleweight title, Costello being the local guy but Butler had a vocal group of his own fans, it made for a great atmosphere even though a lot of the fans had unfortunately left after their mate had fought, what a fight they missed. Unfortunately I didn’t bring my camera so I’ll try to give some details, if any hand held recordings show up on YouTube give it a watch.
They tore into each other from the opening bell, fighting almost nose to nose for the first 3 or 4 rounds. Each time one landed a flurry that looked like it hurt the other shrugged it off and came straight back with shots of his own. After the opening rounds Butler started buying himself a little breathing room by periodically moving back and circling while Costello pursued him, these breaks in the action never lasted long though and the toe to toe action continued.
In the 8th Butler finally landed a shot that did some lasting damage, Costello staggered and Butler was all over him. Costello got pinned on the ropes and all in all may have absorbed as much as a minute of non stop offence without giving much in return, and the ref was hanging in a couple of feet away ready to stop it with one more big clean shot. Amazingly Costello came back and not only fought Butler off but had him backing up when the bell sounded to end the round. Costello gave a fist pump to the crowd who were trying to cheer him to victory as the 9th started and he fought well but it was pretty obvious he was getting tired and the beating in the previous round had taken a lot out of him. They got a standing ovation for the start of the 10th round, which was fairly even until Butler shook Costello again and landed a couple more shots as he tried to recover when the ref stopped the fight. Costello wasn’t happy, punting his mouthpiece out of the ring and pushing his trainer away, it may have been a little sudden to stop it considering what he took in the 8th and recovered from, but I’ve seen much worse stoppages. I’d love to see a rematch it’d make a great undercard addition to a major show.
