British middleweight champion Nick Blackwell (18-3-1, 8ko) produced the goods in Derby last night to retain his title with an emphatic stoppage victory over the previously undefeated Damon Jones (now 13-1, 3ko), live on Channel 5.
The ever improving Blackwell is still only 24 years of age and his 3 defeats have all come at the hands of solid European and world level fighters in Martin Murray (2011), Billy Joe Saunders (2012) and former EBU champion Max Bursak (2013) in fights he arguably took too soon.
It was in January of 2013 that I first met the Fury family. I’d just beaten the snow out of the UK by twelve hours and was sitting in a freezing Dutch ferry terminal waiting for a lift from Peter Fury – a man I’d never met – to spend a week in the famous Fury training camp in Belgium. The Ferry ride had been tortuous; high seas and an even higher crew had meant a sleepless night and much paranoia. I was the first writer or journalist to ever set foot in the remote Fury HQ. It was a land few had even considered. Rumours of the harshness of the camp had reached my ears, but there was little in the way of facts. I had to see for myself, for good or ill. Two and a half months later, Tyson Fury would bamboozle the American press, beat Steve Cunningham without Peter in his corner, and sing to a bemused Madison Square Garden crowd. I wasn’t to blame.
In something of a slight step up in competition, highly hyped heavyweight Hughie Fury (8-0, 5 KO’s) will be fighting cruiserweight Shane McPhilbin (8-7-1, 5 KO’s) next month on September 14th at the Magna Centre, Rotherhan, Yorkshire.