ANTHONY SMALL vs THOMAS McDONAGH

Colourful Anthony Small is one of those love him or hate him fighters. There are those who find his proclamations of greatness irritating or even objectionable, but others see him as merely doing a bit of tongue-in-cheek self-promotion.

Small certainly gets a reaction, and he can’t be ignored, which is just the way he likes it. In his last fight he halted local favourite Matthew Hall in the eighth round in Manchester, and on Friday the cocky south Londoner is again boxing in the northwest of England when he defends his British and Commonwealth light-middleweight titles against Thomas McDonagh, with Sky televising in the U.K.

The sportsbooks have Small, a huge favourite, which is understandable. He has stopped his last five opponents and he was dominant in the win over Hall, who went into the fight a slight betting favourite.

Hall, thickset and aggressive, brought a power-and-pressure style to the ring. He was moving towards Small all night. McDonagh is completely different, being a tall and rangy, jab-and-move, somewhat safety-first stylist. So, Hall is likely to find himself in the role of patient pursuer on Friday.

Despite the prohibitive odds on Small, I can see McDonagh proving to be a difficult opponent. He knows how to keep away from punches and he is hard to hit with a flush shot because his long legs take him out of range on the outside while he knows how to spoil and smother when an opponent gets close. When McDonagh gets his left jab to work and commits himself to throwing punches, he can be effective.

Apart from a tendency towards caution, McDonagh’s big problem is that he isn’t what one could call a hard hitter, with just seven stoppage wins in 39 bouts. I don’t put him in the “couldn’t crack an egg” category, though. Last March he had a willing boxer named Max Maxwell out on his fight with a left hook for a 108-seconds stoppage win — the only time Maxwell has been halted. I well remember McDonagh appearing on ShoBox five years ago, in the days when he was promoted by Frank Warren, and analyst Steve Farhood informed viewers: “It is fair to say McDonagh can’t punch even a little bit.” Inevitably, McDonagh unloaded some solid right-handers to drop his opponent twice for a second-round stoppage.

In his last fight, McDonagh lost narrowly on points to Londoner Sam Webb (an old amateur rival of Small’s), when, from what I can gather, he allowed his opponent to outhustle and out work him. It was this negativity that saw McDonagh drift to a points defeat against the dangerous Wayne Alexander in his first loss. I understand, though, that McDonagh was unlucky to have to settle for a draw against journeyman Andrew Facey last year, a decision that flabbergasted most watchers.

McDonagh says he has trained harder than he has ever done for this fight and he told the press conference that if he didn’t think he would win he wouldn’t have taken the bout. Small predicts a stoppage. “There’s more chance of The Queen getting a job than there is of McDonagh going the distance,” he boasted. That sort of remark, though, is just Anthony being Anthony.

I think that if Small manages to chop down McDonagh inside the distance it will be an outstanding result. I think a much more likely result is Small winning on points, with the threat of his punching power and his combinations keeping McDonagh moving away from him for most of the evening. A cautionary note, though: Small can sometimes box below his best, and he was unimpressive for long stretches before stopping trial horse Freddie Curiel in the last round. A win for McDonagh would be a major surprise, but if the underdog can get into a hit-and-move groove, and if Small coasts along in a complacent manner, this bout could be closer than generally anticipated.