Simpson in points-defeat agony

Published 6 Sep 2010 10:30 0 Comments

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DEFEAT: Simpson and trainer Danny Lee.

GREENOCK featherweight John Simpson will almost certainly be given the chance to regain his Commonwealth title.

Simpson, 27, suffered a points defeat at the hands of Englishman Stephen Smith on the undercard of Ricky Burns’ stunning world-title win over Puerto Rican Roman Martinez at the weekend.

But promoter Frank Warren has pledged to stay loyal to the former champion after claiming the result could have gone either way.

The London fight boss, who manages Commonwealth Games gold medallist Smith, said: “It was desperately close.

“We certainly won’t disregard John in future. We will stand behind him and we might even make a rematch.”

It was Simpson’s third defence of the title he took from Paul Truscott in January last year, when he stopped the Middlesbrough man with a cut eye in the eighth round.

Simpson subsequently beat Truscott in a rematch - again stopping his opponent, this time in the 10th - before following up with an even more impressive performance against part-time soap actor Stevie Bell in December.

But Simpson was unable to re-produce the form that accounted for Truscott and Bell when he faced Smith at Glasgow’s Kelvin Hall on Saturday night.

However, it still appeared that Simpson had done more than enough to earn the decision after Smith sustained a cut to the side of his right eye, but only one of the three judges sided with him.

Paisley’s Victor Loughlin awarded the fight to Simpson by 116 points to 114, but was out-voted by his English counterparts, Phil Edwards and Ian John Lewis.

Edwards gave the nod to 25-year-old Smith 116-114, while Lewis was even more generous, scoring the contest 116-112 in favour of the undefeated challenger.

Interestingly, Edwards refereed Simpson’s British featherweight title bout against Dazzo Williams in Hereford in November 2004 when the Scot was a victim of an outrageous decision.

Although Simpson had clearly won the fight, home-town boxer Williams was awarded a points win after his fans threatened to riot.

A gutted Simpson said after his latest disappointment: “I won the fight alright. Smith was grabbing and holding but I stood my ground.”

The boxer’s trainer, Danny Lee, claimed: “John did enough to earn the decision, in my opinion, and that was a view shared by his manager, Alex Morrison and cuts man Benny King. We told him going into the last three rounds that he needed to make sure it would happen for him and he responded by doing the business.

“I don’t know what John has to do to get a fair crack of the whip. He must be the unluckiest fighter in Britain when it comes to points decisions.

“What happened against Williams was a disgrace and Derry Matthews should have been flung out of the ring when John lost to him on points when he challenged for the WBU title.”

Simpson, who could make his return on a Morrison Promotions bill at the Central Hotel, Glasgow, on 29 October, now has a record of 21 wins and seven loses.

But he is still highly regarded and may even be put forward as official challenger for Ulsterman Martin Lindsay’s British title, depending on Smith’s next move.

This article appeared in Greenock Telegraph 06 Sep 10

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