TONY DODSON vs TONY QUIGLEY

One of those interesting “local derby” fights takes place in Liverpool on Saturday when two fighters from that city meet for the vacant British super middleweight title, with Tony Dodson, a former holder of the title, taking on Tony Quigley, a former well-regarded amateur who has lost only once as a professional.

Dodson, 28, was to have boxed Brian Magee, the British champion at the time, on this show but Magee suffered a back injury and vacated the title.

Quigley, who was due to box in a supporting bout, got the call to meet Dodson for the vacant title.

The two boxers are on friendly terms outside the ring but each has said that once the bell rings it will be all business and that they can be friends again after the fight.

Dodson has sounded super confident in his comments to the Liverpool press. He has been training in the warm climate of Cyprus and says that everything has gone perfectly, with no worries about making weight and no niggling injuries. If he loses, he says, there will be no excuses because he is feeling “fantastic”.

Quigley, 24, has been sounding equally upbeat, saying he is “over the moon” at getting an unexpected opportunity to box for the British title in only his 14th bout.

As I have never seen Quigley and have only seen a couple of Dodson’s bouts it is difficult for me to have a solid feeling about this fight.

Quigley seems to be quite aggressive, a good body puncher with a nice jab and solid right hand, although it seems that he holds his hands low.

As an amateur, Quigley was a national champion in England and he boxed in the world junior championships in Cuba. He was expected to do very well in the seniors as an amateur but he lost to the much more seasoned southpaw Danny Happe, who had a lot of international experience, at the quarter-final stage of the the English ABA championships and decided to turn professional.

For a while it seemed that Quigley was certain to go places. He boxed on undercards on some of the big promotions staged by Frank Warren but he was stopped in the fifth round by Nathan Cleverly in a clash of unbeaten prospects in October 2006 and since then he has won four low-key bouts.

Dodson has a reputation for being inconsistent but he has boxed at a higher level than his opponent and he, too, has won his last four bouts. He won the British title in 2003 when he stopped an unbeaten but less experienced opponent named Allan Foster but Dodson was outclassed by Carl Froch in November 2006 when he went down from a left hook to the body. As Froch is now a world champion, this defeat doesn’t look quite as bad, and it is Dodson’s only loss in his last 12 fights.

My impression of Dodson is that he is a good, basic type of fighter but there is nothing remarkable about him, and Quigley might be the more gifted of the two.

Each man struggled against the same opponent, Nathan King — who seems to be a better fighter than his record suggests — in their last fight. Quigley stopped King in the fifth but his opponent was cut, and this seems to have been an even fight for the first four rounds. Dodson was a narrow winner over King (just one point in it). I understand that Dodson was actually dropped by a right hand in the last round, but a stumble was involved and the referee ruled it a slip. Had the referee decided that Dodson had been legitimately dropped, the fight would have ended up as a draw.

So, on the form displayed by each man against Nathan King, Dodson and Quigley look evenly matched.

I get the feeling, though, that Dodson is in the right frame of mind to give one of his better showings. Quigley has never been past six rounds, whereas Dodson has fought in 10-round and 12-round bouts. Quigley is likely to make a good start but I have a feeling that Dodson will be able to plug away and come on in the second half of the fight to win, most likely on points.

Dodson will definitely need to have one of his good nights in order to win, but I think that with this type of fighter it is vital that he feels that he is absolutely in the right place mentally and physically going into a fight, and I get the impression that Dodson feels he is indeed in the right place for this fight.