Rhodes Moore Thriller!
Ryan Rhodes stopped Jamie Moore in the seventh round of a thriller in Bolton to claim the European light middleweight crown.
More importantly perhaps is that Ryan is now in a strong position for a shot at the WBC world title.
This was a tough, bruising encounter with Jamie Moore starting out strongly and catching Rhodes with some good controlled shots to head and body. Moore was stalking forwards and Rhodes opted to stay with him rather than dance and move.
In the early rounds this looked like it was probably a mistake as by the fourth you could see Rhodes head being knocked around by good accurate shots from Moore. However, Rhodes took the punches well, was not wobbled, sucked it up and doggedly fough back.
As we went through the fifth and sixth rounds Rhodes boxing skills and strong determination were getting him back in the fight and it looked perhaps as if Jamie Moore was starting to look a bit short of ideas. However, when Rhodes put Moore down heavily in the seventh with an excellent right hook it certainly looked against the run of play. Moore dropped to the canvas in delayed reaction and it looked like he may struggle to beat the count.
He did beat the count though and he grittily fought back and looked to have collected his senses remarkably quickly. He traded with Rhodes and landed some good shots again and looked like he had got through the crisis. Rhodes then put together some good shots that had Moore dropping back to the ropes. Ryan went in to end things and he is an excellent finisher. He landed five or six finishing shots as the ref jumped in for a well timed stoppage.
It looks like Rhodes may now get a chance for the world title whereas Moore must re-assess his options now. After the fight it sounded like Moore may move up to middleweight in future. Let's hope Ryan can get that world title shot now!