Smith bloodied but unbowed
A bloodied Paul Smith retained his British super-middleweight title with a unanimous points victory over Tony Dodson in a gruelling encounter at the Liverpool Echo arena.
Judges Howard Foster (116-111), Victor Loughlan (117-112) and Marcus McDonnell (115-112) found in favour of the Liverpool fighter who moves onto a career record of 29 wins and a solitary defeat.
Local rival Dodson fought gamely and tried to turn the bout into a brawl, but lost his third successive shot at the British crown following previous losses to Carl Froch and Tony Quigley.
Dodson provided the early drama when a slashing right opened a cut above on the champion's left eye in the opener.
A clash of heads opened a much more serious wound on Smith's forehead at the start of round two, and Dodson got off the more telling work on the inside in an attritional three minutes.
Smith got off the cleaner work in round four but walked onto a chopping left at the start of five, which caused new damage above his right eye.
Dodson appeared happy to wait for Smith on the way in and the tactic worked as he caught his man flush with an excellent overhand right in round six.
But the champion kept the challenger honest in round eight with a crisp left hook, and had his boxing back together with an eye catching left-right to the head in round nine.
At the start of round eleven, Smith charged over to Dodson's corner and drilled a lead right into his chin, followed by a left cross. The tide appeared to have tuned but Dodson responded with a chopping right hook to the chin.
Holding dominated the final round but Dodson came in stronger in the final minute, appearing to think he needed the knockout. Dodson had a point taken off for continued holding, but caught Smith with a right coming in after the break.
Date published :
13 Mar 2010 - 10:19:06
