Simpson too strong for Bell

Corner steps in to save the challenger as Scot retains his title

By Tim Hobbs   Last updated: 6th December 2009  

Simpson too strong for Bell

Simpson: seventh-round stoppage

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John Simpson retained his Commonwealth featherweight title as he proved too much for game Stevie Bell.

The gritty little Scot was too forceful and far too experienced for the challenger, who was eventually saved by his corner seven rounds into an increasingly one-sided contest.

A brutal sixth round in which he had been trapped in his own corner and pummelled for more than two minutes sealed Bell's inevitable fate. A cut over his left eye and bad swelling beneath it saw Terry O'Connor take him to his trainers with a minute of the session remaining.

In truth he could have continued but having seen the fight slip slowly but surely away from his man, his corner did the right thing and pulled him out.

There were few complaints from a man who became proof that silky skills and slick back-foot fighting do not win titles.

Instead it was Simpson's come-forward style that prevailed, once his workrate had taken the spring out of the challenger's step.

There was nothing surprising on offer from either fighter, Simpson continually on the move, catching Bell to the body and with the occasional hook as he tried his best to stay out of the way.

It was like that from round one, Bell's jab barely distracting the Scot on his way in. And as each session passed there was less and less room for the 34-year-old getting his big chance late in life.

Clearly though, it was a step too far and after the fourth and fifth had seen the fight swing dramatically in his favour, Simpson stepped it up in the sixth.

From the opening exchanges he bustled Bell into his own corner and kept him there for a full two minutes, raining hooks and the occasional uppercut in on an increasingly open target.

It was then that the cut came and although he eventually wrestled himself clear the damage was done, his chance had gone and Simpson was already setting his sights on his next challenge.

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