It was the first Matchroom card at the ECHO Arena since the Tony Bellew vs. Nathan Cleverly PPV back in November last year. The card had Callum Smith headlining against Christoper Rebrasse (23-3-3), the former European champion who had pushed George Groves close in his first fight after the Carl Froch defeat.
Rocky Fielding in his biggest test to date against American veteran Brian Vera (23-9), who had a previously had a couple of unlucky decision loses to Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.
Tony Bellew was in a keep busy fight with Ivica Bacurin, Martin Murray making his debut on a Matchroom bill, Tommy Martin fighting Liverpool local Terry Needham, recent prize fighter winner Tom Doran, Callum Johnson, Tom Farrell, Joe Tanks and Marcus Morrison all fighting earlier on the bill.
Callum Smith got a convincing win over Rebrasse with the score cards 118-110 on one judges card and 120-107 on the other two, although Smith was a clear winner the cards didn’t reflect how close the fight was over the first six rounds with many people having the fight level at that point.
Smith worked well when he kept his distance and used his superior reach, however when Rebarsse got in close he was able to smoother a lot of Smiths work and led to the close start to the fight.
As the fight went on Smith started to take control and was landing a lot of good body shots, which seemed to wear Rebrasse down and he even managed to drop Rebrasse in the tenth with one of his seemingly trade mark body shots.
After the fight Smith acknowledged that Rebrasse has been a good opponent, stating “He was the right opponent at the right time and the sort of fight I needed”.
Rocky Fielding made short work of Brian Vera stopping him in the second round; Fielding dropped Vera with an uppercut with 11 seconds left in the round, but Vera got up fairly quickly and finished the round.
After around 2 minutes of the second Fielding caught Vera around the back of the head and brought him off balance. Referee Ian John-Lewis was a bit too far away from the action as Vera had stumbled onto a knee and was caught with an uppercut by fielding and was then dropped heavily with a left.
Vera managed to make it to his feet but he was not fully recovered and Fielding jumped on him and caught him with a number of clean shots and Ian John-Lewis jumped in and stopped the Fight.
Overall it was a good and clear win for Fielding but some poor refereeing from Ian John-Lewis meant Vera took a shot he should really not have had to. In Fielding’s defence it was up to the Referee to be closer to the action and he should have jumped in when Vera stumbled over.
A lot of people expected a Fielding win but not many in the manor that it happened, when question about his performance Rocky said “I was expecting a tough fight, I am not going to lie, and I was expecting a hard 12 rounds in there”.
In the press conference after the fight’s, both Smith and Fielding were questioned as to whether they wanted to step up and face each other, both said they would be happy to fight but the main aim was to get into a world title position. Eddie Hearn mentioned that if he was to make the fight between the two unbeaten prospects it would have to be at least a world title eliminator to risk either of their unbeaten records.
Bellew got a laboured stoppage win over his opponent Ivica Bacurin (22-7-1), catching him with a right hook to the temple and dropping him in the second, the next few rounds where pretty laboured and Bellew managed to drop his opponent in the fifth and the ninth before he finished the opponent in the tenth.
It was a fairly average performance from Bellew who later said he has struggled with illness through his training camp and didn’t want to push it too hard as he thought he might struggle later on in the fight.
Bellew and Hearn both commented they were looking for a cruiserweight world title shot, Hearn added: “We want the winner of the IBF title fight in July and we’ll look to get him in there for that belt in October or November – it has to be a World title next for Tony.”
Martin Murray faced George Beroshvili (19-5-2) in his debut for Matchroom, it wasn’t a great opponent for a fighter of Martins calibre but it was a short notice fight and got him out on sky to get some much needed exposure.
Martin started well and put pressure on the overmatched opponent landing a number of body shots and come the second round landed a left hook to the body and finished his opponent.
Murray said afterwards: "I felt strong and I felt comfy at the weight. I think fighting at super-middleweight is going to suit me. We know if we catch anyone clean with those body shots then they're going to go.
"Golovkin's the best at middleweight and I came up short against him but I'm at my proper weight now and I'll fight any super-middleweight out there. I'm looking forward to big fights in the future."
Tommy Martin stepped in against local fighter Terry Needham and recovered after being dropped in the first to get a stoppage win in the in the seventh round.
Tom Farrell, Tom Doran and debutant fighter Marcus Morrison all got stoppage wins, with Callum Johnson and Joe Tonks managing to win on points.
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