British contender Dan Azeez beat former world champion Rocky Fielding in a championship bout for the British and Commonwealth Light-Heavyweight titles. Azeez stopped the latter in the eight-round to win the fight by TKO. The bout was held on December 17th at the Bournemouth International Centre in Bournemouth, UK.
There was no sense of fear or hesitation in both fighters as they went at each other immediately starting the opening bell. Dan Azeez (18-0, 12 KO’s) seemed gain an advantage over Rocky Fielding (30-3, 18 KO’s) with his relentlessness and accuracy, and he held onto his lead until his stoppage victory. Fielding was mostly relegated to fighting on the back foot, and while he proved to be well-capable in doing that, Azeez’s varied and effective shots and combinations prevented Fielding from getting into the fight. Though Fielding didn’t neglect counterpunching, Azeez’ head movement seemed to work on the day and Fielding’s counters didn’t really seem to affect Azeez.
Azeez didn’t initially completely dominate the fight however. Though he was the most active and effective, a decent portion of Azeez’ punches were defended well by Fielding who kept the distance fairly well with his footwork. Azeez’ approach worked well however in the latter stages of the match when he managed to knock down Fielding with a body shot. In the eight round, Azeez battered Fielding with a range of unanswered combinations; Rocky Fielding’s team was forced to throw in the towel at that point resulting in a technical knockout win for Azeez.
As these British bouts tend to do, the match signaled an important development in the sport by having two British contenders face each other on homeground. With Dan Azeez having been able to victory, he has established himself as a potential threat to the top of the Light-Heavyweight division. Rocky Fielding may also not to be disappointed to lose to a legitimate talent, and as he only recently moved up to the division, he can still make a dent with the right adjustments.
Dan Azeez meanwhile finds himself amongst a number of British talents that find themselves at the fringes of getting a world title opportunity at Light-Heavyweight, including Joshua Buatsi (16-0, 13 KO’s), Callum Smith (29-1, 21 KO’s), Anthony Yarde (23-2, 22 KO’s) – who will actually be fighting for a world title in January, Lyndon Arthur (21-1, 15 KO’s) and Craig Richards (17-3-1, 10 KO’s).
The co-main event featured a non-championship bout between two Cruiserweight contenders; Chris Billam-Smith (17-1, 12 KO’s) and Armend Xhoxhaj (14-3, 7 KO’s). Smith showed the best account of himself in a pivotal match where he stopped his Armenian opponent in just the fifth round of their (twelve-round) fight. Since Smith’s loss to fellow Brit and contender Richard Riakporhe (15-0, 11 KO’s), he has gone on a seven-match winning streak and with his latest win has sealed his eight win to put the division on notice,
A Heavyweight card between two British prospects was also featured. Steve ‘Drago’ Robinson (6-1, 4 KO’s) and former professional Rugby player Nick Campbell (5-1, 5 KO’s) faced off against each other. Campbell, who was unbeaten prior to the bout, was stopped in the fourth round. Though initially starting off explosive and energetic, Robinson managed to drop Campbell twice in the fourth round and the fight was stopped not long after, resulting in a technical knockout victory for Robinson.
Robinson made his pro debut on September 28th in 2019. Standing at 6 foot 7, the self-styled ‘Drago’, formerly nicknamed as ‘USSR’ previously suffered an ignominious defeat against the relatively unknown Shane Gill when he lost on points. Nick Campbell was arguably Robinson’s best opponent in his relatively short career, and may find himself face a similar high-knockout Heavyweight prospect in Frazer Clarke (4-0, 3 KO’s) who called him out as of recently.
Feel free to comment respectfully on the main event and the rest of the fight card.
