Munroe Retains and Chases Bernard Dunne
Published May 11, 2009 by Martin Bean
Frank Maloney’s bill was entitled ‘Working Class Hero’, which was especially apt after Rendall Munroe had to work extremely hard to overcome Arsen Martirosyan last night, retaining his European Super Bantamweight Title for the second time with a unanimous points decision (if you had followed our tips of the week this result could’ve netted you a few quid!)
Martirosyan, a French based Armenian, made up for what he lacked in talent with pure grit and determination, winging in wide hooks and hurtful blows, suggesting he carried more power than his record has previously suggested with just 3 early wins in 12 victories.
After Munroe’s flashy ringwalk in his high visibility jacket (he wears it as a bin man in his day job) and sunglasses, he looked cool and relaxed during the announcements. Martirosyan on the other hand looked a little tense and has a solid physique rather than Munroe’s chiseled look.
The first bell went and Martirosyan started extremely fast, landing several left hooks with Munroe pinned on the ropes. Munroe was caught cleanly and rocked momentarily, but did manage to weather the storm. That opening exchange set the pattern for the fight—Munroe happy to let Martirosyan take the centre of the ring.
This proved vital in the first four rounds and I had the challenger up by three rounds at that stage (I scored the third level). Munroe simply wasn’t landing anything at all of note—he was on the outside, sometime on the ropes, flicking out little jabs. There was nothing wrong with Munroe’s tactics of hitting and moving but he needed to put more behind his punches—a stronger jab would’ve made Martirosyan more weary about just marching forward. Towards the end of the fourth a clash of heads saw Munroe cut over his right eye, but it was only a small nick and was never going to be a factor in the outcome of the fight.
The fifth saw the tide turn as Munroe finally came to life—rather than being happy to sit on the ropes, he started to turn his opponent and land some solid shots. It was the first round Munroe had won on my card and I felt more confident he would not start to have more success and get a foothold in the fight.
However, my hopes proved to be unfounded with Martirosyan taking the sixth, mainly by landing some excellent counters, especially with his dangerous right hand. At this point, with Munroe 59-56 down on my card and looking to have no answers to the problems posed by Martirosyan, it looked likely that Munroe was about to surrender his title.
But in the seventh the fight turned on it’s head with Munroe landing a series of fantastic shots, particularly to the body. Munroe’s workrate was superb as he unleashed punches in a similar vein to Joe Calzaghe – very ‘army’ rather than real power with every shot. It was hugely effective in winning the round but it meant that Martirosyan managed to just about hear the bell to end the round.
The pattern continued in the eighth with Munroe sustaining fantastic pressure, more excellent body shots were landed and it looked impossible that Martirosyan would see the end of the round. But Munroe was now smothering his own work in his eagerness to end the contest, letting Martirosyan see the end of another round. It was now 77-76 Martirosyan on my card and Munroe was right back in the fight.
The next couple of rounds were fairly even, a tiring Munroe edged the 9th but there was little work done by either man in the 10 and I had now had it level going into the 11th.
Munroe then forged a lead by edging the 11th, landing a fantastic left hand out of his southpaw stance—Martirosyan shook his head after being caught, snarling defiance but Munroe kept out of trouble to the end of the session.
The final round was also Munroe’s, Martirosyan was rocked (although more due to being off balance than being caught) and Munroe’s cleaner work made the difference. With half a minute of the round to go both were tired and happy to hear the final bell.
Official scores were 115-113, 115-114 and a rather wide 117-112, all for Munroe whilst my final card read 116-114.
Munroe will be pleased to see the back of his opponent and showed real grit in rallying to win the contest. Next for Munroe could be Irishman Bernard Dunne, which would be a fascinating contest.
The highly touted John Fewkes lost his unbeaten tag to Martin Gethin on the undercard. Fewkes came in overweight and didn’t have his trainer Glyn Rhodes in his corner, suggesting all was not well in Fewkes’ camp, which would appear to be accurate in light of this result.
It didn’t show the first two rounds however, as Fewkes showed class, working in clusters of punches on the outside and managing to avoid Gethin’s work despite a lowly held left hand—Fewkes timing at this point just looked impeccable, purposely missing punches by inches and coming back with sharp, accurate counters.
In the third this all changed, Gethin continued to plough forward and started to have some success to the body, before following this up with left hooks to the head. Fewkes was pleased to hear the bell and walked back to his corner minus the swagger of the previous rounds.
Fewkes tried the same tactics of the first two rounds to start the fourth, but Gethin was not to be denied. He walked through Fewkes punches and landed a superb left hook to the head. Gethin started to rain in punches and the referee then stopped the contest—it looked a slightly early stoppage with Fewkes coherent, but Fewkes wasn’t firing back and looked hurt.
It’s a major shock and Fewkes looked crestfallen at the result. Fewkes really is a quality operator but all was not right for him tonight—I will be interested to hear what has gone on in the Fewkes camp to cause such a performance. Congratulations to Gethin though as he is now English Lightweight Champion, he can now move forward and chase a fight with British Champion John Murray—it may not be box office like Murray-Fewkes would’ve been, but it will be a cracker to watch.
Also on the undercard, Scott Haywood won the vacant English Light Welterweight title with a 10 round points win over the game Dean Harrison. The final score was 96-95 and it really was that close—both acquitted themselves well and I’m sure everyone in the hall would pay to see a rematch. Haywood’s better work in the final round tipped the balance in his favour after a fast start by Harrison.
‘Magic Matthew Hatton scored an eight round points win over Scott Woolford—Hatton’s pressure was too much for Woolford, who tried to box but could only manage sporadic success.
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