ALan Foster
ALan Foster
Is it true he is boxing Tony Dodson for the vacant British title
Liverpool's Tony Dodson contests the vacant British super-middleweight title with Alan Foster of Northampton at the Kings Hall in Belfast later this month (November 22). Dodson was originally due to challenge former holder Matthew Barney in Liverpool on the same date, but Barney vacated after winning the WBU light-heavyweight crown with an upset points win over Tony Oakey in Portsmouth last month and the vacant British title clash was rearranged for the Belfast show topped by Brian Magee.
The 23-year-old Dodson has been beaten in two of his last three outings, but was stopped unluckily on a cut in one of them by the Frenchman Pierre Moreno in nine rounds. However, he was stopped genuinely by the rugged - and unbeaten - Albert Rybacki of Poland before that, also in nine rounds. His best victory came against America's Brian Barbosa at the Everton Park Sports Centre last year, when Dodson stepped in to face a man IBO super-middleweight champion Brian Magee had pulled out against and dazzled everyone en route to an eight round decision, flooring Barbosa in the seventh. He also holds a points win over rugged Belgian Mike Algoet, who recently took unbeaten Steven Bendall to a life and deather, and looked superb in banging out Jon Penn in two rounds for the Central Area super-middleweight title 19 months ago. Last time out, the Scouser scored a powerful retirement stoppage of the Birmingham-based Armenian Varuzhan Davtyan, who failed to come out for the fourth.
"I've not been out of the gym since I beat Davtyan," he said. "I've been ticking over nicely and doing my jogs every morning as well as putting in some decent sparring sessions with Courtney Fry."
His opponent, Foster, enters the fight unbeaten at 10-0-1, but has never been beyond six rounds as a pro. "I'm feeling really good at the moment," he said recently. "I've been training solidly since my last fight and I'm doing five or six miles on the road five days a week now.
"I've never done 12 rounds before so a lot of the work in the gym has been stamina-based, but I'm not saying I'll be lost if it goes past six rounds.
"Dodson's a good fighter but he's been beaten before and I'll go there confident I can do the job.
"He's what you might call a box fighter, he can be quite flashy at times but he likes to get inside and have a good tear-up as well. I'll be sitting down with my trainer over the next couple of weeks and watching the videos of him so we can work out my strategy from there."
He will enter his first big fight fired-up and, like any Chris Sanigar fighter, in great shape.
The 23-year-old Dodson has been beaten in two of his last three outings, but was stopped unluckily on a cut in one of them by the Frenchman Pierre Moreno in nine rounds. However, he was stopped genuinely by the rugged - and unbeaten - Albert Rybacki of Poland before that, also in nine rounds. His best victory came against America's Brian Barbosa at the Everton Park Sports Centre last year, when Dodson stepped in to face a man IBO super-middleweight champion Brian Magee had pulled out against and dazzled everyone en route to an eight round decision, flooring Barbosa in the seventh. He also holds a points win over rugged Belgian Mike Algoet, who recently took unbeaten Steven Bendall to a life and deather, and looked superb in banging out Jon Penn in two rounds for the Central Area super-middleweight title 19 months ago. Last time out, the Scouser scored a powerful retirement stoppage of the Birmingham-based Armenian Varuzhan Davtyan, who failed to come out for the fourth.
"I've not been out of the gym since I beat Davtyan," he said. "I've been ticking over nicely and doing my jogs every morning as well as putting in some decent sparring sessions with Courtney Fry."
His opponent, Foster, enters the fight unbeaten at 10-0-1, but has never been beyond six rounds as a pro. "I'm feeling really good at the moment," he said recently. "I've been training solidly since my last fight and I'm doing five or six miles on the road five days a week now.
"I've never done 12 rounds before so a lot of the work in the gym has been stamina-based, but I'm not saying I'll be lost if it goes past six rounds.
"Dodson's a good fighter but he's been beaten before and I'll go there confident I can do the job.
"He's what you might call a box fighter, he can be quite flashy at times but he likes to get inside and have a good tear-up as well. I'll be sitting down with my trainer over the next couple of weeks and watching the videos of him so we can work out my strategy from there."
He will enter his first big fight fired-up and, like any Chris Sanigar fighter, in great shape.
This one could be interesting, whilst I do think it should be Cateley vs Dodson its still a good as fight any to gauge Foster's potential.
Its hard to believe Dodson is only 23, he's seems to have been around for a good few years at this fringe British Title level.
Perhaps its Foster we should be looking into, more so than Froch. This fight may get his career going.
As Bennie suggested, this is a tough fight to call. Simply because Foster is such a novice and its hard to assess where he's going.
At a push I'll go for a Foster win, simply because I think Dodson seems to have found his level and is not in the best of form.
Its hard to believe Dodson is only 23, he's seems to have been around for a good few years at this fringe British Title level.
Perhaps its Foster we should be looking into, more so than Froch. This fight may get his career going.
As Bennie suggested, this is a tough fight to call. Simply because Foster is such a novice and its hard to assess where he's going.
At a push I'll go for a Foster win, simply because I think Dodson seems to have found his level and is not in the best of form.