Chamberlain Stops O’Leary in a Thriller

An Ireland versus England main event turned into a high level slug fest on DAZN earlier in August. Three knockdowns and plenty of blood punctuated a violent tenth round TKO in favor of Mark Chamberlain. Just do put some emphasis on the action, here are my notes

“What a wild fight, Chamberlain lost a lot of his power and had his mouth open after the fourth. O’Leary came back strong winning rounds, dropping him and cornering him often. Chamberlain looked gassed, legs looked weak and the power looked gone. Then he stunned O’Leary with a solid left and rallied to finish him. Way to capitalize and close!”

Chamberlain entered 17-1 (12) at 27 and was the underdog fighting in enemy territory in Dublin, Ireland. The only time I recall watching him was losing his undefeated record to Josh Padley a few years back. He faced the undefeated 19-0 (11) Pierce O’Leary fighting in front of his hometown crowd. It was a solid match on paper with two fighters of similar experience, records, and ages. The first round saw Chamberlain box well out of his southpaw stance. He maintained his one inch height advantage as he fought behind his jab. Chamberlain’s quick and direct left cross came in early and turned out to be a factor in the fight.

The second round saw the action heat up as there was the first knockdown of the fight. O’Leary was having some success looping his right hand and was doing his best to get inside the range of Chamberlain. Chamberlain gave O’Leary a shove for space and Pierce was headed down. On his way to the canvas, Chamberlain fired a hard left that landed and the fall was ruled a knockdown. O’Leary protested with blood coming from his nose. The replay showed a clean knockdown even if he was already on the way down. Chamberlain pressed his advantage on a hurt O’Leary in the third repeatedly scoring with his left hand. O’Leary rushed in late in the round and was dropped by an uppercut. The hometown fighter got up quickly but was well behind on the cards and referee Leszek Jankowiak watched the action closely as Chamberlain scored constantly to end the round.

The fourth and fifth rounds were momentum changers in favor of O’Leary. The Irishman regained his legs and began to find a home for his punches. The stockier fighter came in with his looping right around the guard and doubled his left hook to the body then the head. Chamberlain’s legs began to lose some mobility and his punches looked to have less effect. Mark’s mouth was open to end the fourth as his nose began to bleed. The left from Chamberlain was being timed and either evaded or when it did land it did not rock O’Leary as it had before.

Chamberlain began to flick the jab trying to keep O’Leary off but it was not effective. Chamberlain’s right hand was not very effective and O’Leary began to take control. The sixth was a good rebound round for Chamberlain who stayed off the ropes and maintained range. The one time he was caught along the ropes he landed a left cross and uppercut and immediately got back to the middle of the ring. O’Leary landed a hard left hook to the head but it was not enough to take the round.

The seventh was a competitive round with O’Leary coming out strong and landing looping punches. O’Leary was doing damage even as he bled through the nose and showed swelling. As the round drew on, Chamberlain began to score with his jab and limit the exchanges with movement. With about fifteen seconds to go, O’Leary trapped Chamberlain in the corner and landed a hard right hand to the body and Chamberlain took a knee. The commentary team called liver shot but it appeared to land on the solar plexus. Chamberlain got up and was fortunate the round was over.

O’Leary tested Chamberlain’s resolve early in the eighth. Chamberlain recovered well and showed guts but lost the the round. O’Leary had another strong round in the ninth and evened up the fight on my score card along with the unofficial broadcast card from former champion Carl Frampton. After the ninth the broadcast team interviewed former champion Steve Collins who also had it even and in retirement looks like he can kick some ass still.

All of this is to be said that O’Leary looked to have won three rounds in a row while scoring a knockdown. His nose looked bad but he had all of the momentum with the home crowd behind. Chamberlain needed something big to turn the fight around and he looked tired and ineffective. The tenth round turned in a shocking conclusion. A left down the middle split the guard and while it did not snap O’Leary’s head back, it froze him in place. Rather than admire his work or freeze to analyze the situation, Chamberlain fired away until the referee stopped the fight! Chamberlain jumped up on the corner post as the crowd fell silent.