Small Ready For
British & Commonwealth Title Showdown With McDonagh
November 16, 2009
(NOV 16) On the 27th November, at the
Robin Park Centre in Wigan, Anthony 'The Scream' Small (22 (KO 16)-1-0)
defends his British and Commonwealth Light Middleweight titles for the
first time, against former WBU International Light Middleweight Champion
Thomas 'Storm Boy' McDonagh (34 (KO7)-2-3).
Back in July '09, at the M.E.N. Arena in Manchester, Small stopped
Matthew 'El Torito' Hall in the 8th round of a fight he spectacularly
dominated from start to finish. His game plan, of hit and clinch,
clearly frustrated the much larger Mancunian who became quite negative
as the fight progressed. So much so that by the fifth round Hall began
looking dazed and confused, his work rate dropping dramatically, as if
he already knew the fight was slipping away from him.
Things got much worse for Hall in the seventh when he was cut over the
right eye. This was a bad cut that leaked blood constantly into his eye.
Following the cut opening, Small began throwing huge shots. Literally
fighting for survival, Hall began to fight back hard throwing huge shots
of his own.
In the eighth round Small came out strong throwing power punch after
power punch. Finally Small landed a hard right to the head of Hall,
which clearly hurt the Mancunian badly. Small then unleashed an
avalanche of heavy punches until the referee, James Davies, was forced
to step in at the 2:21 minute mark to save Hall from more punishment.
Small is clearly determined now that he
has both the British and Commonwealth titles that they will stay in his
possession for the foreseeable future. As part of his preparations for
his upcoming clash with McDonagh, Small, from Deptford. South East
London, has been spending much of his time at Rooney's Boxing Gym, close
to London Bridge, sparring with house fighters Karol 'Dr KO' Ozimkowski,
Ben 'The Entertainer' Day and Darren 'Mr R&B' Hamilton.
Following one of the many sparring sessions Small took a little time to
talk about his preparations for the upcoming showdown with McDonagh.
"Training has been going really well, can't complain. I've been working
hard, totally dedicated. You see a lot of fighters they train to make
weight, they start overweight and train to lose weight. I'm already on
weight so I train for speed, power, strength and skill. When I get on
the scales Im already there.
The sparring's been going really well. They're great guys here at
Rooney's gym. I've been sparring some lighter guys here and we've been
rotating things, doing two rounds in and two rounds out with weights on
my feet, as I'm working on speed. I want to mix it up, obviously it's to
my advantage to be faster on my feet. It's going really, really well."
Clearly happy with the way his training has been going for the 27th
November fight, Small turned his attention to current European champion
Ryan Rhodes, who he feels has been avoiding him, by saying. "I was born
ready, I'm one of the best fighters in the world and I'm gonna prove it.
I'm gonna prove that I'm not just one of the best fighters, I am the
best fighter in the world.
Well, Ryan Rhodes just won the European title. He vacated the British
title rather than fight me. There's an old saying in boxing, Joe Louis
said 'you can run but you cannot hide'. So if he's talking about going
on to bigger and better things, and he probably will do, I'll tell him
now this is the biggest, baddest thing out there, so he has nowhere to
run to. If he does get a world title I'll be hot on his heels, so he can
either fight me now or fight me later. I'm chasing glory, I'm at the
peak of my career, anyone that gets in my way will get crushed."
Whilst the thought of Anthony Small and Ryan Rhodes getting in the ring
to face each other is without doubt a mouthwatering prospect, Small's
upcoming fight with McDonagh has the potential to be a classic in it's
self. Small's opponent, McDonagh, has only been beaten by Wayne
Alexander, by split decision, and Sam Webb by a close 96-95 points
decision.
Anthony 'The Scream' Small vs Thomas 'Storm Boy' McDonagh, for the
British and Commonwealth Light Middleweight titles, headlines the Ricky
Hatton promoted, Sky Sports televised, event at the Robin Park Centre in
Wigan on Friday the 27th November 2009.
