British Cruiserweight Title- Norton-Dolan Friday

Yeah.

Commonwealth you can draft in pretty much anything.

At least with British there is a bird in the office on £8 an hour in the 'quality control' department.

 

Yep... these days the Commonwealth title seems a little bit easy to come by.

 

Yeah, he's very well schooled and it's always nice to see someone like that achieve things. That was quite a big fight for him tonight at this stage of his career and he handled it pretty well. What changes would you suggest? Do you think he was worried about doing the 12?

 

Suppose so. You can defend against some african that is terrible rather than a decent brit

 

I think it may be high time the Commonwealth title was scrapped.

After all, it doesn't really exist anymore. I can see it's logic with the Commonwealth games, which is really a special event, for all athletes, but in pro boxing it is just used as a tool by promoters. You have two prospects the same weight, the more advanced one holds the British, and the junior one has the Commonwealth before progressing.

 

I hate to say this.... and he might be very happy where he is, but i'd certainly recommend a change of trainer. Sometimes fighters and trainers can get to close and stop bringing out the best in each other. Fannans a fantastic trainer but it looks as if Dolans gone as far as he can with him. I'd try and improve his defence and make sure he was more focussed on a game plan... He didn't really seem to be working to any set of instructions and his tentativeness was ruining the work he was doing. His accuracy was awful... A good correct puncher like that should never miss with that many shots. He also kept walking on to he right hook counter and abandoned the right hand after the fifth. It was a fight winner but he neglected it. His entire game plan should have been based on effetively closing distance and landing combinations. Norton only throws single punches. Thats why Dolan won the last so handily. You may have a point about the stamina worry but if your a fighter and you train properly there should be no reason why you can't do the rounds unless you have medical issues. He started fairly well so perhaps it was the fighter who forgot the plan.

 

He's not going anywhere, lets be serious. Even he doesn't rate his own chin.

He'd get killed by somebody like Maccarinelli who has not even truely proven himself as world class yet. Fortunately this is an extremely weak division domestically, should be able to rack up a few defences and develop that way.

 

Interesting. You're a fight afficianado, who do you think would be a good trainer for him? Also, out of interest, how can a fighter go about improving accuracy? Is that done in sparring or are there other routines for that?

 

Accuracy can be improved on the pads and also in sparring. Sparring as always would be the best method. Hmmm good trainer? Not sure really..... There are some fantastic trainers out there. I think anyone new will promote a focus that seemed to be missing tonight... but I certainly wouldn't blame Fannan for that- I'd be keener to blame his circumstances.

 

How far do you think he can go Dan ?

 

Unfortunately for him, he's in the weakest division domestically (maybe outside the real small guys), but the strongest division in Europe. There are so many good European cruiserweights, he really has no chance in hell of progressing beyond that.

 

Do you think there are serious concerns over Dolan's chin then? He was hurt in Prizefighter but that was at heavyweight and he's now accepted that isn't the division for him. He took some clean blows tonight okay or at least seemed to. I still think he can do something on the domestic scene, I agree with everything you've said though.

It would appear to me you think he needed to be more aggresive tonight but was worried about being so because of his chin.

 

British champ, maybe earn himself a crrack at the european title one day. I like him but, as TFFP says, he's in a strong division when you look at the wider scene.

 

:goodExactly.... Like TFFP says he is NOT going to be a factor beyong British level but he's certainly good enough to win a Brit title. If he had of been more aggresive he would have created more opening to land a punch like he did for the only legit KD he scored. I think that their is obviously punch resistense issues but a nice tight guard and intelligent strategy can allow you to overcome a bad chin at domestic level.

 

Looking down the British cruiserweights list its a sorry sight, it really is. It's okay, he's a relative novice, he can defend his title and progress (hopefully) against less than threatening opposition. That is the positive. On the down side its not really going to prepare him for European honours.

Off my head I can think of:

Huck
Tokarev
Brudov
Frenkel
Licina
Wlodarczyk
Rusal
Arslan
Drozd
Kraj
Alexeev

All these are milling around the European scene. Good luck to him though, I like his style and schooling, if he adds a little more tenacity.