Tonight Hatton Promotions host an impressive looking card at
the Altrincham leisure centre, top of the bill sees Stourbridge southpaw Rob Norton defending his British and Commonwealth crusierweight titles in a rematch with Sunderland's David Dolan. Also on the card Walsall's Martin Gethin faces Graeme Higginson for the vacant English lightweight strap.
It was almost a year ago when Rob Norton and Sunderland's David Dolan clashed at the Aston Arena, then for Norton's British cruiserweight belt and the vacant Commonwealth title. The fight turned out to be an exciting if not controversial affair.
When the pair first met it had pretty much everything, including five knockdowns (some of which were disputed) and a controversial ending (Dolan's team still dispute the scoring) so it was likely the two would meet again and tonight they do.
Norton is a very tricky fighter to fight, a southpaw who's stance and movement are very unorthodox, he can however get lazy at times and if his minds not a hundred percent on the job I can see Dolan, who will be more used to fighting the awkward Stourbridge fighter since their first fight, dropping Norton and maybe winning on points.
Walsall's Martin Gethin hopes to get his career back on track and will aim tonight to capture the vacant English lightweight title (a belt he held in 2008) when he faces Blackburn's Graeme Higginson. Gethin was supposed to fight for the belt before Christmas against Stefy Bull but Bull pulled out injured and Gethin gets his chance tonight.
Higginson's a good competitor and has turned his career around since losing his first four professional fights in 2005 and 2006. Since that early stage in his career his only losses on the whole have been at the hands of good fighters. I see Gethin having too much grit for him in this one though and can see him walking through Higginson's shots and maybe forcing a late stoppage bringing the English belt back to Walsall, and perhaps more importanlty to Gethin, putting him back in the British title mix.
Elsewhere on the card Mark Thompson fights Kevin Mcintyre in a British welterweight title eliminator, Paul Samuels and Cello Renda go at it again, and if they're first encounter is anything to go by there will be fireworks! Sky screen the show as Friday Fight Night tonight from 10pm.
Picture courtesy of Hatton Promotions
