Sheffield’s own Ryan Rhodes takes the title home when making the first defence of his European light-middleweight belt against Luca Messi at the city’s Ponds Forge Arena tonight from 10pm, live on Sky Sports.
The thirty-three year old was crowned king of the continent last year after dethroning Jamie Moore in what was widely considered to be the best domestic fight of 2009. A short right hand brought Moore, and the house, down that October evening in Bolton but the grandstand finish was no surprise to a fighter who has seen it all during a rollercoaster fifteen year career.
First stepping foot in a professional ring during the winter of 1995, the 5ft 8inch steel city scrapper carved out a two year, sixteen bout undefeated record which saw him collect British and IBF Intercontinental straps.
An ill advised step up to middleweight resulted in a points defeat when challenging Otis Grant however. This was to be just the start of Ryan’s problems as, despite getting back to winning ways soon after, another outing in the higher division ended with Ryan halted inside three by both Jason Mathews and Lee Blundell. A convincing 2006 points defeat to Gary Lockett saw Rhodes take a year out to consider his options, before returning to embark on arguably his most successful stint to date.
Eight victorious comeback bouts, six inside the distance, produced a run of form which earned him the British, WBC International and European straps. That memorable, edge of your seat battle with Moore saw the champion’s record stretch to a fearsome forty-three wins, twenty-nine by KO, against four defeats and bookmakers see this as an ideal opportunity to make it forty-four, pricing the home town favourite at a flyweight 1/33 (Skybet).
Thirty-five year old Italian opponent, Luca Messi arrives in the UK with a lowly world ranking of just one hundred and seventy-five, whilst no better than second in his home nation. The Bergamo Bomber brings a forty-four fight record but with seven career defeats already on his card, including four by KO, this former welterweight is expected to struggle.
A twelve year veteran of the fight game, Messi has contested Italian, WBU and WBA Intercontinental, WBA World and European titles but has more often than not failed to live up to expectation.
Since a break from the sport, Messi returned to string together a six fight undefeated record but with each of those opponents having lost more than they had won, Betfred are confident enough to trade at as big as 12/1 about the belt boarding a plane to Italia.
Taking recent form in to account, it is hard to see what Messi has done to merit a crack at this honour. This will be his first visit to these shores and I don’t see him gate crashing the party.
Rhodes wasn’t given a chance by many last time out but he will be desperate to put on a big performance for those who did believe in him. With six of his last eight bouts ending inside the distance, another stoppage win looks likely but offers little value at 2/9 (Boylesports). The special markets provide some respite for punters seeking more for their hard earned.
Each of Rhodes last two victories have come in the seventh round and three in a row can be backed at 10/1 with Boylesports whilst the champion winning this one in rounds 7-12 seems well priced at 11/8 (Skybet). Messi being counted out is priced at 2/1 (Skybet) on the exact method of victory market.
