Dunstan defies age to beat Dolan
Some say age should not be a barrier and Terry Dunstan was indeed living proof of that on Sunday, as he captured the vacant English cruiserweight belt with a sixth round retirement of local favourite David Dolan at Houghton-le-Spring's Rainton Meadows Arena.
In truth, although Dolan was pulled out by his corner at the end of the round with a bicep/arm injury it had looked likely that the man from London was well on the way to winning the fight without the need for any corner intervention on the part of Neil Fannan and co. Against an atmospheric backdrop, Dunstan started the fight in confident fashion, indeed hitting Dolan with an eye-catching left hand within the first twenty seconds. For his part, Dolan looked tentative and a little nervous and it was no surprise that he was dropped after an exchange punctuated by a Dunstan right hand.
On further inspection it would appear that Dolan may have been a tad unlucky to have a knockdown scored against him, a tangle of feet and a push may have caused him to go down to the canvas. However, it was just desserts for a confident Dunstan early on.
From then on the fight took on a familiar pattern. Dunstan, bouncing on his toes scoring repeatedly with right hands and uppercuts and Dolan looking puzzled as to how to get a foothold in the fight. Round two saw some improvement from Dolan who scored with a decent left hand, but again Dunstan was looking the boss and took the round on the back of more success with the right uppercut. Round three saw a little more success for Dolan and with some decent work with the left hand, both jabs and hooks took the round for me with the first signs of Dunstan tiring.
That would be the end of the success for Dolan however as from Round four onwards Dunstan took over again and put Dolan on the canvas again this time with a beautifully timed right hand. This time Dolan looked hurt and Dunstan closed in for the finish; ironically this produced Dolan’s best success of the fight as he came firing back and towards the end of the round Dunstan again looked tired. However, it should be said that he was still well in control of the fight.
Rounds five and six took on a more dispiriting outlook for Dolan who was peppered with single right hands and looked increasingly easy to hit. It was very noticeable that Dunstan for the most part had been allowed to fight at a pace that suited him and that Dolan seemed to have no answer to this. It came as a little shock when Dolan was pulled out by his corner at the end of round six at first. But it became apparent that he had sustained an injury early in the fight, which could explain what, was on the whole a tepid showing from Dolan. In saying that, nothing should be taken away from Dunstan who despite his advancing years looks a force domestically and fully deserved his win. Nice skills, decent power and a good performance against a man in Dolan who simply did not get going.
One man who certainly got going was local prospect Glen Foot who scored his second one round knockout in as many fights by halting out of his depth Duane Grimes. The fight at welterweight had been scheduled for four-threes.
Knocked down for a second time by crunching right hands, Grimes was wisely rescued by referee Graeme Williams and looked unsteady on his feet for a while afterwards. For his part, Foot was impressive and has an air of confidence and dare I say it arrogance which will serve him well moving on. As ever with prospects of this nature it will be interesting to see what happens when someone hits him back but so far so good. Foot looks one to watch, with very heavy hands.
From heavy hands to fast hands and wins for local fighters Martin Ward and Neil Hepper over Delroy Spencer and Damien Turner respectively. Both showed nice skills and very fast hands to record wide points victories. Hepper remains unbeaten and Ward rebounds from a loss to Micky Coveney where he was alarmingly outweighed and as a result rather shockingly knocked out. Again, both look like decent prospects. Scores were 60-53 for Hepper and 40-36 for Ward.
The show opener saw a nice debut from local welterweight Paul Archer who outpointed clever journeyman Kristian Laight taking all four rounds on the card of referee Andrew Wright. Archer mixed well to body and head, especially to body and clearly outskilled Laight who for his part used a journeyman’s nouse to last the full course. Interesting to see what happens with Archer once he develops strength wise.
All in all a good show, Phil Jeffries and Neil Fannan can be happy with their promotion other than their headline loss. Nice to see Frank Maloney at ringside, as well other local name fighters such as Stuey Hall and Travis and Jon-Lewis Dickinson amongst others. MC duties were carried out admirably by Andy Kerr and all in all punters will have gone home happy with the show albeit disappointed with the result in the main event.
