Ryan Rhodes successfully retained his European Light-Middleweight title by stopping Luca Messi in the sixth at the Ponds Forge Sports Centre in Sheffield.
The fight was comfortable for Rhodes who looked sharp from the off and dictated the pace throughout.
Rhodes showed his intent immediately, switching between southpaw and orthodox, landing clean punches. Messi blocked well in the opener but could not prevent the Sheffield man from landing some impressive body shots. Perhaps Messi tried to concentrate more on protecting his torso and inevitably took a knock to the jaw from Rhodes' left, knocking him to the canvas. He instantly jumped to his feet, trying to complain about a push from Rhodes. The fight referee saw it differently and gave the Italian an eight count before he allowed the fight to continue. Any arguments about Rhodes being ring rusty, due to his inactivity in fights in the last year, had certainly been forgotten at this point.
The second was a little calmer than the first, starting off with ineffective punches being exchanged between the two fighters. Messi was certainly digging in and trying to throw some punches to break up Rhodes' comfortable onslaught. Rhodes worked impressively with his left and defused any attack that Messi could muster.
At this point it was obvious that Messi hadn't travelled to pick up a pay-check and wanted to be a force in this fight. He looked in shape and extended that 'tough-nut' reputation of his. However, he was unfortunate to run into Rhodes who, himself, admitted that he is in the form of his life. Winning the first two rounds with ease was evidence of that.
The third round started off much like the first when Rhodes used that excellent left hand of his to knock Messi down for another eight count, with only thirty seconds elapsed on the clock. This clearly spurred Rhodes on, as he tried to get forward sensing Messi in trouble. He picked Messi off with little effort, connecting both head and body shots. He pinned Messi into the corner connecting punches without much resistance. Rhodes was fighting on his own terms.
Credit to Messi must be given; he took the hard punches from Rhodes. Some of them easily would have knocked out other potential European title challengers. The fight was certainly one sided and this was proven by the facts. Rhodes had connected almost four times as many punches as Messi after the third.
The fourth and fifth rounds continued much the same with Rhodes' dominance and Messi's endurance. Rhodes looked so comfortable that he appeared to have almost abandoned any defence.
The sixth proved to be the most devastating for Messi. Rhodes did not waist anytime and looked to land more clean punches from the sound of the bell. Rhodes landed a huge right to Messi's body dropping him to the floor, which produced yet another eight count from the fight official. Messi continued but perhaps foolishly. Rhodes could sense the end and pushed forward connecting endless shots on Messi. The referee had seen enough and ended the bout.
Rhodes certainly showed his class and the dominance of the fight has extended the indian summer of the thirty-three year olds career. Messi seemed too tough for his own good and will certainly feel he earned his part of the fight purse after the punishment he took. This was very impressive from Rhodes and the Hatton Promotions fighter moves on to 44-4 (29KO).
