Above: Daniel ‘Porky’ Lovett rocks Nader Hamdan with a vicious right hook in their IBF world title eliminator on Saturday night.By Brad Kingsbury
CRANBOURNE boxer Daniel ‘Porky’ Lovett lost a gruelling 12-round war against Nader ‘Lionheart’ Hamdan on points at the Dandenong Baskeball Stadium on Saturday night.
The IBF Super Middleweight World Title eliminator was also Lovett’s first defence of the IBF Pan Pacific Super Middleweight title he won after stopping Englishman Justin Clements last month.
The majority decision saw one judge score the bruising encounter a draw, giving the boxers 114 points each, and the other two judges give the edge to Hamdan with scorecards reading 116-113 and 116-112.
Lovett’s trainer Jim Slatter issued a challenge for a rematch immediately after the fight, with the bout likely to take place after Hamdan returns from his next fight in Germany.
“It was very close fight, I thought closer than the scores indicated, but that’s the way boxing goes,” Slatter said after the decision was announced to Lovett’s disappointed home crowd.
“I just spoke to (promoter) Barry Michael and we are going to get a rematch and hopefully it will be here at Dandenong.
“Nader is going to Germany for a fight and Porky will also have a fight in between the rematch,” he said.
Lovett’s bout against the former WBC number one-ranked super middleweight was the feature of a five-fight card at the Dandenong venue that drew a large and vocal crowd intent on seeing a victory to Lovett.
The heat inside the venue was oppressive and all fighters were affected from the first event at 8.20pm.
Lovett, who at 23 was 10 years younger than his opponent, started well and was the aggressor early, bringing the crowd to its feet with a big right hand in the opening round.
Hamdan, however, showed his prowess by counterattacking and seeing the round out without a problem, before opening a cut under Lovett’s right eye in the second round.
Hamdan remained on the back foot but stayed clear of Lovett’s bigger punches and his left jab started to find the mark.
Lovett began to wear some leather and, although he did not appear to be affected, the punches were scoring shots.
The crowd support for Lovett was unbelievable throughout the fight, with chants of ‘Porky, Porky, Porky’ echoing through the stadium, but a trickle of blood from his mouth in the fifth round indicated the accurate Hamdan jab was taking a toll.
Lovett tried to up the ante in the second half of the contest, but the experienced Hamdan reacted and the fight became a battle of attrition, with both fighters taking some punishment.
Lovett delivered several clean and powerful uppercuts, opening a cut under Hamdan’s right eye between rounds seven and 10, but the challenger landed some telling counterpunches and forced Lovett into swinging punches from a distance, which either missed or were ineffective.
The final three rounds saw both fighters tire significantly but continue to punch it out to the crowd’s roars.
While Lovett tried to nail his rival with bout-winning shots, the crafty Hamdan was happy counterpunching and forcing Lovett to take the lead.
The final round was Lovett’s.
He landed the more telling blows but could not find a knock-down punch, with Hamdan fighting conservatively and keeping clear of the Cranbourne fighter’s dangerous uppercut.
Slatter paid tribute to both boxers and said Lovett would benefit from the experience.
“Nader’s a really experienced fighter. We took a gamble fighting him, and I did say that from the start,” he said.
“The heat was awesome and both guys put on a championship fight.
“Porky would have learned so much from that fight and will be a better boxer for it.”
Slatter said the fight went to plan early but Lovett had started getting a bit wild and tried to jump in from too far away when pressured.
“We got him on the backburner late in the fight and started winning rounds again,” he said.
“I thought we won most of the late rounds and my brother thought Porky might have done enough to win it.
“It wasn’t the way it went (but) he’s a champion kid and a champion fighter and the crowd support was fantastic.”
Hamdan took his record to 40 wins from 44 fights, while Lovett’s record now stands at 13 wins from 16 professional bouts.
