According to Ritson himself on Facebook. 23rd March in Newcastle. Maybe he was stepped up too quickly in his last fight so I can see why they're dropping back down to domestic level, and I think the BBBoC ordered this as Ritson's mandatory for the British title anyway. I think Ritson will win this in good fashion, maybe another early stoppage. I would love to see Ritson progress onto the bigger stage again, he's a very exciting fighter. Maybe a change of trainer would benefit him. He had no real gameplan against Patera and it cost him.
Ritson was stepped up too early imo. Hopefully he will be able to learn from the loss and come back stronger.
I hope he's been working on a Plan B He's got away with walking people down and banging them out, as soon as Patera felt he could take his shots and started moving he looked bang average in there. After this if he wins i'd find him another back foot mover, make sure its not his kryptonite
I dont think its his kryptonite, I think it was more a case of. He wasn't able to adapt on that night. He's had his way with getting people out early and on the particular night where he lost, I think the magnitude of the occasion got to him, he was nervous, couldn't think straight, which culminated in him been unable to adapt.
Shame he is not at Welter would like to see him in a shootout with Lejeragga. Ritsons biggest battle is against himself I'm not totally convinced he wants to shoulder the hopes and dreams of a city the way Matchroom have built him up to. In other lightweight news anyone see Masher Dodd rack up another loss last November against Journeyman Jordan Ellison.
Yes, I saw that. Maybe masher has lost the desire now. I think he's out again very shortly, we shall have to see how he goes on.
Stepped up at a perfectly fine rate. Appeared better than domestic level (which I suspect he will prove to be more clearly with time), so the fight was good to make. You don't often improve without significant challenges or adversity, so in theory he should be able to learn from that L and be a better fighter as a result. Only concern being that Patera isn't really that great He should win this comfortably enough
agreed. i don't subscribe to the "he was moved along too quickly" opinion. He destroyed the better domestic lightweights in something stupid like 4 rounds, when someone seems to be that far ahead of British level, you have to step them up to European i think, or they won't learn anything.
It was a logical step-up because of how he sailed through at Brit level. Looking forward to seeing him rebuild and I think he can win the rematch when it comes
What should be the biggest worry moving forward is how he couldn’t take the body shots of a relatively light hitting European level fighter.
I do agree with the 'he was moved along too quickly theory" but I'm not talking level of opponent, the opponent was fine, no the level of opponent was correct. It was the pressure he was now under as a relatively minor superstar, certainly in his own area. That itself put a lot of pressure on ritson and he didn't handle it at all. As he was doing his ringwalk you could tell he was nervous and stiff. Once you get into that frame of mind, your ability to make clear decisions becomes far harder.
That's a good point, mate. Nerves hugely affect energy levels and it was the body work that he couldn't recover from. That's part of the danger we have with the current trend of selling personalities above the actual boxers themselves if you get what I mean. The whole Geordie Golovkin moniker was a mistake in hindsight. GGG is a genuine elite fighter, you can't casually throw that sort of comparison around without some weight being applied.
