Fancied prospect Dennis McCann, 14-0-1, a young Southpaw Super-Bantamweight with a paid for smile and a sprinkling of sunbed panache, found himself in a ‘gut-check’ contest with Watford based Romanian Ionut Baluta, 16-4-1, at London’s famous York Hall last weekend. It was uncomfortable, difficult and there was a degree of fortune that he woke up on Sunday morning with his manicured record unbroken.
Blood had flowed profusely from the Englishman’s brow from the middle rounds, an accidental clash of heads between the pair splitting the skin. A misadventure that led to escalating adversity. McCann struggled to adapt and maintain the distance required to neutralise Baluta’s uncultured attacks but showed gumption, if fluctuating poise, in the key moments..
An intervention from the referee in the 9th proved crucial in preserving his record but the performance posed questions of whether he has the propulsion to match the trajectory mapped out by his promoter.
He had arrived at a familiar jumping off point in his career; facing an opponent who could beat him, and would try to. The prospect either soars onward or, if unprepared or ill-qualified, occasionally, they crash. McCann landed somewhere in between and his next fight will be important and require consideration. Whether it is a rematch with Baluta – a familiar opponent for prospect Bantams in the UK, this was his 7th such contest in the past couple of years and he’s won a series of them – or a step back toward someone less ambitious, McCann will need to demonstrate he learned from the experience on Saturday whichever path is chosen.
The belt at stake was of minimal interest to the gathered and ensures no tremor was felt from the outcome, but it enabled the broadcaster to use some spare letters they’d found in a cupboard on screen and would, for the winner, provide a type of leverage with the WBO that Frank Warren has become unrivalled at exploiting.
In truth this was merely a gatekeeper match up. Baluta is wild, gritty, fit and aggressive. He’s unfazed by records, away dressing rooms and boyish smiles. McCann began strongly. Employing his straighter punches and superior hand speed to good effect. Baluta reduced to swinging and missing. The jab, from McCann’s Southpaw stance appeared to be a key factor that would give the 22-year-old the distance to frustrate and outbox Baluta. It proved a fleeting advantage.
The gap it offered between McCann and Baluta’s leaping left hook proving particularly hard to maintain. Baluta had similar success in the second. Landing significant right hands to add to the telegraphed left. McCann rode them well, but it was plain, that in a distance fight the youngster would be asked the type of questions it is hardest to revise for. Neither fighter appeared able to disprove their reputations as ‘none-punchers’, a derogatory conclusion foisted on those with modest knockout returns, but it only helped ensure a longer fight was in prospect.
Baluta’s success continued at the start of the third, a massive left broke through McCann’s defences, but in following up Baluta appeared to punch himself out to the extent McCann reclaimed control as the three minutes closed.
It felt pivotal to the outcome how this round was scored. This observer favoured the Baluta breakthrough, one judge shared that view, two aligned with the home fighter’s more prolonged superiority. The middle rounds, were shared and less eventful. McCann spinning the charging Baluta repeatedly, and spoiling effectively on the inside. There was a case to be made that McCann, with his acquired permatan and gleeming grin, had survived the crisis and was establishing some sort of order, although every moment remained competitive. An accidental clash of heads in the 7th provided another experience for McCann to chew on.
Blood immediately flooded from beneath the brow on McCann’s left eye in the 8th and gushed from a cut high on his forehead too, and it was plain a new crisis had beset the youngster. He demonstrated a stout chin and a stouter constitution too as Baluta sensed his greater experience and proven stamina would now be decisive and he was emboldened further as a result. The Romanian was weary too but caught McCann with his staple lead left hook and while not shaken, the unbeaten man was tiring and unable to repel the oncoming attacks. A sense he was unravelling began to emerge and the fight was entering rounds McCann had never visited before and in which experience is traditionally key.
The 9th began, and McCann, bedecked in the red and black of the comic Dennis the Menace character, looked out from beneath a veil of his own blood, his face glowing like a newly registered XR3. The referee broke the action and walked McCann to his corner in which passive attempts were made to clear the blood.
Marcus McDonnell took the outcome to the judges – an accidental clash of heads takes the outcome to the cards – and 86-85, 86-86, 86-86 tallies were revealed. A Majority Draw. This observer for the BigFightWeekend.com, had Baluta, the underdog, a round ahead.
That third round probably decisive in the divergence. Once the disappointment subsides, Dennis McCann will thank his wily old corner man, Alan Smith for extracting him when he did and for the experiences the fight gave him. The 10th would surely have been Baluta’s, and with it, yet another upset win for him on his adopted British shores. Not a drop of blood fell from McCann’s brow once the action ceased and the familiar post-fight obligations began.
A rematch seems inevitable, but that is in the aftermath and with the sense McCann needs to correct the anomaly that now adorns his record; the colder light of this week and the warmth of the seat in his promoter’s office could see a different conclusion drawn. Promoters learn in these fights too.
Baluta may need to find a different prospect’s blue ribbon to cut.
BOXINGWRITER.CO.UK 
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