BoxRec

I was pleased to see Jamie Cox registering his first knock-out win on Saturday night, but I noticed this was the fourth time he's been in a fight scheduled for only four rounds. Ok, I know due to a big undercard and TV scheduling SN fighters can't always be guaranteed a maximum number of rounds, but I sometimes wonder how much a prospect can learn when his fights will not last any longer then 12 minutes. That's only 8 minutes longer then when they were fighting as an amateur. Also their opponents tend to go into the ring content to fiddle and spoil as they know they will only have to last four rounds to make it to the final bell. Plus you often have a fighter trying too hard to go for the knock-out as he knows he's got only four rounds to make an impression and ends up making mistakes. I noticed Paul Smith had six fights earlier on his career which all went the four round distance and has only recently started fighting in eight rounders. On the other hand you've got Darren Barker who made his professional debut in a six rounder against a former (albeit faded) world title challenger Howard Clarke.