BoxRec

He fought a Featherweight in Odumasi (who I not sure if I can Spell, so I will call him by his lookalike - Pele). However, old Pele was as game as they come and didn't look like he had slipped much from the Harrison fight 4 years ago.

I thought it was an excellent performance by Arthur, based on the last 3 top Super Featherweights performances, his was the most complete. Okay Sinistin was a class above Pele, but was Gomez' opponent?

Arthur called out Gomez again, and before I thought he was a fool because it was too soon. However, he looked ready to take Gomez based on that performance - it was hard to pick a fault really. He fought with a new pateince and I was thoroughly impressed.

He still takes too many shots, is too straight up and neglects the jab I think. The fact that he was fighting a natural Feather gave Arthur the deciding edge but he's still got glaring flaws and I think Gomez will beat him again.

Odumase was a good opponent. Good record with some decent names but with no discernible punch power, so AA could test out some of his new defensive skills.

In that respect he did OK. The knockdown shots, especially the left were good and he managed to slip a few punches.

That being said, he still took shots that from a harder hitter, would have caused problems and the head movement looked artificial rather than natural.

It was a good comeback fight after the false start, but I still see him reverting to type in a war and that may be his undoing

Slapsie

I thought it was a good performance by Arthur, he has shown improvements in his defence under his new trainer. He also looked in good shape and has cut out the showboating and improved his concentration.

A good 'comeback' fight against a capable opponent, he seems to be heading in the right direction.

Lets just hope he doesn't revert to type in a stiffer fight.

Was a good comeback performance, hopefully he can improve more and we'll see if his defence holds up when he fights someone like Gomez (or, most likely, Gomez himself) who will up the ante from what Odumase was doing.

Eric gave a good account of himself and came to fight, he looked like he was getting warmed up/shaking off the rust as the fight went on, and I thought I saw him protest the stoppage..?

He was ok, another matchup where the odds are massively in favour of the Sports Network fighter, size, age, e.t.c, fairly predictable outcome really...

Arthur really needs a Gomez rematch to repair his reputation.

They should try to get Gomez his dream fight, send him to the US for it, whatever, in all likeliness he'll get thumped and he can then come back for an Arthur rematch.

Anybody know what Carl Johannsen's getting up to now with the BBC gone. He has some good skills and can punch, he'd knockout Gomez imo.

Goz wrote:He was ok, another matchup where the odds are massively in favour of the Sports Network fighter, size, age, e.t.c, fairly predictable outcome really...

Arthur really needs a Gomez rematch to repair his reputation.

They should try to get Gomez his dream fight, send him to the US for it, whatever, in all likeliness he'll get thumped and he can then come back for an Arthur rematch.

Yeah I agree, he'd get two big pay-day's then, instead of just the one against Arthur. I also noticed the difference in size between Arthur and Odumase, but have come to expect this type of thing and now regard it as the norm. Welcome to British boxing in the new millenium: mismatches galore every weekend, a world where the three belts that are regarded as 'world' titles everywhere else on the planet don't seem to exist. Instead we have the prestigious WBO, WBU, IBO, and WBF belts for our 'world' champions to defend against the hordes of part-timers and fossils weekend in, weekend out. Oh, the glorious times...

Manos de Oro wrote: Yeah I agree, he'd get two big pay-day's then, instead of just the one against Arthur. I also noticed the difference in size between Arthur and Odumase, but have come to expect this type of thing and now regard it as the norm. Welcome to British boxing in the new millenium: mismatches galore every weekend, a world where the three belts that are regarded as 'world' titles everywhere else on the planet don't seem to exist. Instead we have the prestigious WBO, WBU, IBO, and WBF belts for our 'world' champions to defend against the hordes of part-timers and fossils weekend in, weekend out. Oh, the glorious times...

Dull isn't it?

When you can watch competative football matches week-in week-out where you honestly don't know who will win it's no wonder one's interest wanes from time to time.

I mean Frankie used to put a decent matchup on the undercard, so you would get Hatton knocking out a stiff but say a Farnell-Gronweld (spelling) which would be the pick 'em fight.

Now it's just a procession of mismatches, almost going back to Roman times!

There is no way Arthur will ever get that Gomez fight out of his head.

If they ever fight again, Arhtur will shite himself when he sees Gomez in the other corner. Gomez would win again, no question.

Thought he looked pretty good, and I couldn't fault the match too much, considering the type of serious beating he's coming off ( last "fight" doesn't really count ).

Natural of not, it's got to be a good thing he's starting to move his head a bit, now he's realised he's not Superman.

Decent comeback.

MightyWarrior wrote:it's got to be a good thing he's starting to move his head a bit

I didn't watch the fight but I'm glad to read this. Just holding his gloves up was never going to be enough once he stepped up.

My (rather belated) thoughts on Arthur are on much the same sort of lines as Slapsie's comments. While it was a decent performance against a solid opponent, there were still lots of things to work on, and plenty of things that needed more work.

The head and upper body movement clearly did not come naturally to Arthur, he needs to keep working at it until it becomes second nature, because throughout the fight you could see him having to really think about his defence. IMO, he needs at least another couple of fights and a reasonable amount of time before he considers fighting the likes of Gomez again. Because, if he goes after those type of names sooner rather than later, he will revert to type, and all the extra defensive work will be for nought. Unfortunately Gomez is likely to be beaten before Arthur gets to him, if Arthur was to wait a while.

On the plus side i think it's great when a fighter acknowledges his deficiencies and is willing to work on them. Hopefully he'll continue to work hard, and keep showing the same sort of attitude he showed at the weekend. Even if he was to suffer defeats, he'll win himself a few more fans.