Jon Pegg’s New York fight week notebook
The big fight is over. Jon Pegg concludes his Big Apple boxing diary
JON Pegg and Louie Counihan, of Birmingham’s Eastside gym, have lived every fight fan’s dream.
They’ve been in New York. It’s no holiday for the pair – Last night (Friday) they were part of a world title fight at a truly legendary venue. Madison Square Garden beckons.
The pair were key members of female boxing legend Savannah Marshall’s team for her controversial battle with Shadasia Green.
While tasting the Big Apple, Jon agreed to keep readers posted through a diary of the week. Here is his last instalment.
FRIDAY
FIGHT day is here.
Start the day with a healthy breakfast and spend the day checking on Savannah and just waiting around. Everything is good and our pick up is at 6.15.
The team meets in the lobby and we head over in the big bus to Madison Square Garden. Upon arrival we are met by the MVP team and shown to our dressing rooms. We are next to Team Scotney and can hear them through the walls. Kerry Kayes, who has already worked Chantell Cameron’s corner, comes in, leaves some of his stuff, says hello and gets ready to help in Scotney’s corner before ours.
Sav does all her prefight checks, which are quite strict in New York and then I sit down to wrap her hands with the other team and officials watching. Thankfully, everything goes smoothly and is signed off. Scotney is on the screen now, boxing beautifully. Louie takes Sav on the pads and starts warming her up. Ref comes in to do his final warnings and tells us he’s fair, but will not tolerate rule breaking and will deduct points.
The moment comes and we are called to the ring walk. Done a lot of ringwalks, but this one feels a little bit special so I try to breathe it in and take in the arena. In the ring, the ref calls the fighters together and off we go. Sav starts well, her boxing is a little rusty after two years out, but she is doing enough to take the early rounds and Green is holding a lot and the ref isn’t happy. After three rounds I have us 2-1 up and it seems so do most people at ringside.
Round four Sav is scoring nicely and the ref finally loses patience with Green’s holding and takes a point. We feel really good in the corner. We have it 3-1 after four with a deduction which is a great start. Green shows why her knockout ratio is so high in round five as she lands the right hand she has been looking for all night and really rocks Sav to her boots.
What a setting…Madison Square Garden on world title fight night
Despite the follow up attack, Sav manages to land a few of her own and Green’s fury seems to run out of steam. It’s still a relief to get her back to the corner. I tell Sav to just keep stepping to the right and take Green’s only weapon away. She does this really well in round six and although she probably drops the round she gets her legs back and feels good. I now have it 3-3 with the deduction.
Rounds seven and eight are good rounds for Sav as Green throws very few punches and Sav uses her experience to outscore her. Round nine is really important as we have Sav two rounds up, not including the deduction: If we take this round we are pretty sure we are taking the fight. Jake Paul and his partner are sitting next to us going crazy at Green to do more work. Sav negates Green’s swings and, for us, takes the round to put us in a healthy lead. We tell Sav to box smart as Green’s going to come out swinging and, indeed, her corner are heard on TV telling her she has to knock Sav out and don’t leave it to the judges.
The pro American commentary has us three up at this stage and the crowd has gone pretty quiet. Green really tries, Sav moves and boxes and it’s a scrappy round with the promoters imploring Green forward to get the KO.
The bell rings and the other team do not seem really happy. Sav thinks it’s close, we are sure we’ve done enough. What makes us nervous is the fact we were given three American judges, but were assured we would be given fair play in such a huge fight. First, just Tom Shreck, from New York, 95-94 Green, six rounds to four with the deduction, Second judge Max Deluca, also from New York, 96-93 Marshall – 6-4 with the deduction, same score as me. Third judge Martha Tremblay, from Denver, who was sat right next to the loud and vocal promoters, 96-93.
Louie takes Savannah on the pads as the minutes tick away
No way did we lose seven rounds. There are a lot of shocked faces and many of the MVP team say they scored for Marshall. We congratulate the other team and Sav, in her interview, says: “I give you the judges and home turf and just wanted a fair crack.”
We head back to the dressing which is very quiet and subdued. Have a chat with Sav who decides to walk back to the hotel with her friends. Mick Hennessy is already concocting ways of turning this to Marshall’s advantage and ways to pressure a rematch, but for me it’s just sad that somebody gives away every advantage and still doesn’t get the respect a world champion deserves.
Decide to walk back to the hotel myself to clear my head and grab a slice of pizza en route. As sad as I am, New York on a Friday night at midnight is an amazing place to stroll through.