‘Danny showed he is world class’ - Cleary

Quatermaine shows the signs of battle. Pic: GBM/Leigh Dawney

IT was, at times, messy and there were scares along the way, but the bottom line is Danny Quartermaine is now European super-featherweight champion in the eyes of two governing bodies.

And the cold, hard truth is the Leamington prospect outpointed dangerous Romanian James Chereji by a country mile to become a double titleholder – all three judges scoring the 10 rounder 97-92.

Chereji, who lost for the fifth time in 25 contests, is no slouch, but couldn’t cope with the champ’s intensity. He’s mixed in world class, competed as high as welter and can bang.

Before GBM’s marathon Skydome show, staged last night, trainer Edwin Cleary stressed all that mattered was the win. The 26-year-old fighter, who defended his IBF belt and added the WBO title to his collection did that emphatically, perhaps with a little more drama than Cleary would’ve like.

Danny was dropped in the first by late replacement Chereji, endured a nasty cut over the right eye in the fourth and, by the end, the optic was badly bruised and swollen.

That apart, he simply outworked Chereji, who also sustained a cut to his right eye in the eighth, for long spells in a fight that was untidy and never really caught fire. It wasn’t an easy watch.

Chereji scaled above the title limit for last night’s encounter – 9st 5lbs 9oz, which forfeited his chances of becoming a champ.  It was still classed as a defence for Quartermaine, but the Eastern European could not be crowned king.

Cleary, who praised the corner work of Jon Pegg, hailed victory as Danny’s “coming of age”.

“I think Danny Quartermaine showed he is world class,” he said. “Chereji has fought the IBF world champion at light-welter, he has a 40 per cent knockout ratio, he has only lost to the best, he had over 150 amateur contests, won a lot of amateur titles and he was due to box at lightweight in two weeks time.

“Danny couldn’t see out of his right eye from the third, Jon Pegg did a fantastic job in the corner. Danny stuck to the plan – stay on his (Chereji’s) chest for four or five rounds and tire him out.  He stuck to the game plan, which was ‘make it messy, make it scruffy’. Then the boxing came in the rounds he hadn’t done before.”

Referee Marcus McDonnell lectured both over infringements in a 10 rounder marred by clinching.

Interestingly, Danny, now unbeaten in 12, fought two very different fights. Up until the eight, he looked to bull Cherefi to the ropes and land body shots. That close quarter work invariably ended with the pair being prised apart by Mr McDonnell, an official who had his work cut out.

In the final three rounds, Quartermaine boxed off the back foot, jabbed, moved and used the ring. The bull became a matador – perhaps because of the worsening eye injury – and Chereji had no answer.

The Warwickshire hope is a very good boxer, yet it’s a facet of his game that has only been glimpsed in his career to date.

If he’d shown those skills earlier in the bout, fans would’ve witnessed a cleaner contest and Danny, I’m sure, would’ve disheartened his challenger and broken him down. It would’ve been a match that was easier on the eye.

Yet the fight unleashed early fireworks before fizzling into a melee. Quartermaine was dropped for four by a countering left hook in the opening minutes, regrouped and looked to force Chereji to the ropes in the second. It was understandable: at mid-range the big ticketseller was getting caught by flurries.

The ref told them both to tidy it up in the fourth – the first of many warnings – and seconds later Quartermaine (9st 3lba 8oz) emerged from a clinch with blood streaming from his gashed eye.

His corner did an exemplary job to stem the flow and by the sixth Quartermaine had found the room to land body shots.

My notes for the eighth, a round that saw Danny ticked off for using his forearm, state “very messy”.

After that, Danny danced his way to victory – a victory that paves the way to bigger things, but was not memorable.

Cleary said: “I now know I can give Danny a rigid structure in there. He was knocked down and cut, he wasn’t breathing heavily, he wasn’t panicking. How many fighters could do that.

“Danny is seventh in the country with 12 wins. Everyone above him has had 20 to 30 fights. I’d like to get him more titles and experience, I don’t think the people above him will fight Danny.”