Had time to reflect on Saturday night's title fight, watched it twice now & still feel that Dan Naylor won it rather handily! He controlled the range early on & manoeuvred himself around the ring with intelligence using his southpaw jab very well & also scoring with single shots or smart counters, kept his defence tight on the few occasions he was backed up and took most of what was thrown on his arms & gloves, Devines only real early success was when he held Dans head with the left and pulled him on to the right (a few times without any warning from the ref who kept telling Dan to lift his head!!!!) the only rounds he lost clearly were 7 & 9, 8 was extremely tight but for me Dan won it (worst ways out I'd call it even, worst ways!) & 10 was Dan's round apart from what I can only call a ridiculous count from the referee, was never a knockdown in a million years!! The 3rd round was also very close maybe Devines or even! So I saw it 97-93 for Naylor!!
Accounting for giving Devine EVERYTHING I can, in the interests of being impartial (3,7,8 even,9 & 10 with the KD) I still have a Dan win by 95-94! absolutely stunned by the referee scoring it 97-91 thats 8 rounds to 2 & there is absolutely NO WAY that Dan only won 2 rounds of that fight!! He was hardly touched in anger for 5 of the first 6 & scored a GENUINE knockdown in the first!! It really does amaze me how some people can see a fight COMPLETELY differently. Dan worked so hard & got himself into fantastic shape, BOXED his way to a great victory only for him not to get given it!!
I in no way want to take away from Michael Devine who is better than I thought he was and was classy before & after the fight, or James Paisley who also acted with a touch of quality after the fight whilst we shared a beer together in the Dundee Arms afterwards. Top fellas whom I genuinely wish all the best for the future, well after a rematch anyway!!!
