Martin Rogan

Charles Martel

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I watched a livestream of Ireland's Martin Rogan win the Commonwealth Heavyweight Title today, knocking out Matt Skelton in the 11th round!
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It was a GREAT fight - Rogan has the heart and determination of Rocky Balboa! This guy is amazing - his first professional fight was at age 33, but today he became the first person to stop Matt Skelton in a pro fight. Rogan defeated Audley Harrison by UD in his last fight.

There was talk of Alexander Dimitrenko fighting Matt Skelton for the European heavyweight title next, but that is now unlikely to happen.
 

white is right

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Wow huge upset. Rogan has now beaten two top British heavyweights in a row. Not bad for a cabbie...
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Edited by: white is right
 

Sean

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Rogan is now the top British Heavyweight! I was really for him to beat Fraudley, but didn't think he could. The same with Skelton. There definately needs to be a movie about Rogie someday
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Liverlips

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Good to have a white man back as Commonwealth champion. What a great story! This guy started boxing late in life and works as a cabbie. If he were black there would be a movie made about him starring Cuba Gooding Jr.
 

j41181

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That's an amazing victory indeed! It's Hollywood movie worthy!
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Blue Devils

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Great win! I honestly thought Skelton would beat him.

On the undercard British Olympian Billy Joe Saunders made his pro debut scoring a 2nd round KO. Also Former World amateur champion Frankie Gavin scored a 4th round KO in his pro debut.
 

referendum

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Great win for Rogan. Boxrec has now moved him to number 16 in their rankings. Hopefully he will now be considered in the 2nd level of heavyweight contenders, like a Dimitrenko or Arreola. Edited by: referendum
 

Sean

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referendum said:
Great win for Rogan. Boxrec has now moved him to number 16 in their rankings. Hopefully he will now be considered in the 2nd level of heavyweight contenders, like a Dimitrenko or Arreola.

Wow, now theres a fight that would never happen, but that I would love to see: Rogan vs Arreola. I'd take Martin by late stoppage.
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devans

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WOW - what a great fight. Rogan won on sheer heart, desire and stamina. I thought he was burnt out in the 10th and then he came back to finish it in the 11th. Skelton should really have beaten him. If he had boxed Rogan and kept it at long range with his jab he should have won.Skelton is much bigger with a longer reach.Instead he tried to war with Rogan and couldn't keep it up for more than about five rounds. I don't think he realised how good Rogan is and totaly underestimated him. Rogan has the heart of a Lion and just would not be denied. Amazing stuff for a 37 year old man that was a Taxi driver a couple of years ago and had to win a TV show (Prizefighter) to get a crack at the big boys.
 

white is right

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Rogan has big dreams...... Here is the story from the Irish Post...
From Belfast to the Big Apple?
Last Updated Mar 2009
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NEWLY-CROWNED Commonwealth Heavyweight champion Martin Rogan is gunning for number one contender David Haye following a brutal 11th round demolition of favourite Matt Skelton in Birmingham on Saturday night.

The British Heavyweight was dramatically clubbed to the canvas after Rogan reigned down a succession of shuddering blows in the penultimate round.

Earlier, the former Belfast taxi driver, who only took up boxing in his late 20s, opened a gash above Skelton's eye with a massive right hook.

After the fight a clearly delighted Rogan said: "Maybe David Haye is saying now that I'm in his plans, he'll be saying to himself will I fight Martin Rogan. I've just fought a guy who blows people away in the ring  he was whacking me with everything he has. I'm sure David Haye will have a think about it, and if he does it will be a multi-million pound fight  you know, get it on in America.

"I'm Irish, put on a fight like that in Madison Square Garden, with a white Irish heavyweight you'd see the place packed out."

The win is Rogan's 12th in a career that only spans a dozen fights. The affable cabbie's big break came after he won a Prize-fighter competition which was run by Sky Sports.

He continued: "I put all my game plan into use for this fight, I couldn't tell you what it is because if I fought Matt again he would know what I was going to do. And whether I give Matt a re-match or not is up to Frank Warren,

"I don't want to disrespect Audley Harrison or Matt Skelton or any other fighter, but it's like a Formula One driver, if you're in a race and someone passes you out, you don't reverse back to go past them again  you keep going until the finish. You don't go backwards in sport, you go forwards."

And it looks like going forwards is the only direction Rogan knows. His high-energy tactics and relentless work rate surprised a lot of his critics on Saturday night, but the biggest surprise was kept for Skelton.

"I'm a big man and I train very hard,my wife can vouch for that. I train eight hours a day and she doesn't see me at all  I don't bluff. I'm with a great team here  trainer John Breen and the raging bull Eamon Magee - they cost a lot of money," he laughed.

British born David Haye is the former undisputed World Cruiserweight champion, but he decided to vacate those belts in order to pursue his heavyweight ambitions.
 

P-NutLane

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If Rogan was black hed be fawned over by ALL the talking heads, and sportswriters.Edited by: P-NutLane
 

Blue Devils

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Rogan will make his first defense of his Commonwealth title this Friday against Englishman Sam Sexton who has a 11-1(4) record.

If I can find a stream for the fight I'll post it here.
 

Charles Martel

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If Rogan defeats Sexton tomorrow, he'll most likely get a shot at the European heavyweight title.
 

Iron

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Sextons a talented young fighter at just 24 years of age posessing fast hands and decent boxing skills although suspect regarding his cardio which contributed to his only defeat as a 22 year old.If hes not overawed by the pro Rogan crowd then he should be a live underdog.
 

Liverlips

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Sexton wins! Another big (6'4, 244), talented, young (24) white fighter is now on the scene in England!
 

Charles Martel

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Martin Rogan will be having a warm-up fight on Saturday, Feb 9 against journeyman Ladislav Kovarik.

He'll be participating in Prizefighter: The Heavyweights on Feb 23.
 

werewolf

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Yea I know, you're right Martin Rogan was a cab driver before he became a boxer in Northern Ireland. His win over Harrison was legendary! Martin Rogan is awesome and I can just imagine someone trying to skip a fare in his cab, lol! He was a great boxer. I don't mean to disrespect the profession of taxi driving.


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Finally got to see that 2008 Rogan-Harrison fight, and yeah Rogan was terrific. Not very slick but a real bulldog. Immediately the fight ended the ref raised Rogan's hand. It seems that the ref was the sole judge of the fight. Was that an experimental system? The announcers were biased in favor of the negro. They were saying he probably won. He didn't, and for once a righteous decision was made in boxing, a very very rare occurrence. So maybe the ref judging system is better, except the refs they've got around here are often almost as crooked and incompetent as the so-called judges.
 

white is right

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Finally got to see that 2008 Rogan-Harrison fight, and yeah Rogan was terrific. Not very slick but a real bulldog. Immediately the fight ended the ref raised Rogan's hand. It seems that the ref was the sole judge of the fight. Was that an experimental system? The announcers were biased in favor of the negro. They were saying he probably won. He didn't, and for once a righteous decision was made in boxing, a very very rare occurrence. So maybe the ref judging system is better, except the refs they've got around here are often almost as crooked and incompetent as the so-called judges.
No it's the original way boxing was judged in England. I think for domestic fights it's still judged this way. In the US in the 30's until the 50's?? Fights were judged by the referee plus two judges. I think the party line was that this was stopped because the referee's job was hard enough without having to submit a score card every round. Ps I too remember Rogan vs Harrison and Harrison was his usual lazy unconditioned self and Rogan outworked him and bullied him around the ring down the stretch.
 
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Finally got to see that 2008 Rogan-Harrison fight, and yeah Rogan was terrific. Not very slick but a real bulldog.

Awesome, I'm glad you saw it! :)

Yea, Rogan is a guy who was driving taxis in Northern Ireland who became a heavyweight contender and managed to get some good wins. I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think he had any amateur boxing experience whatsoever. He basically just took up boxing in his mid 30's, as a hobby. His KO win over Negro Matt Skelton and his decision win over Negro Olympic Gold Medalist Audley Harrison were amazing, and in both fights, he would have been a massive betting underdog. After the Harrison win, Martin Rogan was an impressive 12-0, with a win over an Olympic Gold Medalist (who later fought David Haye)!

It was a real underdog story. A man who changed his life in a good way through courage and hard work, with all the odds stacked against him. Taxi driver turned legit heavyweight contender.

Martin Rogan is a great man, and as I recall even in his fight with Tyson Fury, Tyson knocked Martin out but showed tremendous respect and sportsmanship to Rogan post fight. That was a nice touch from Tyson Fury and it shows that Rogan commands a lot of respect!

Immediately the fight ended the ref raised Rogan's hand. It seems that the ref was the sole judge of the fight. Was that an experimental system? So maybe the ref judging system is better, except the refs they've got around here are often almost as crooked and incompetent as the so-called judges.

It is sometimes commonplace in only the UK for fights to be judged solely by the referee. Tyson Fury, John McDermott, David Haye, Martin Rogan, Ricky Hatton etc have all had numerous fights in the UK that have been judged only by the referee. Immediately after the fight is done, the referee will raise one of the hands of the boxers, and that corresponds to who the referee has judged to be the winner.

It's just a different system of judging a fight, and perhaps it has to do with the promoter or commission wanting to eliminate costs of employing 3 judges (fine by me, especially when said 3 judges so often get paid to bring in false scorecards, lol!). Of course, ultimately, referees use the same criteria to judge a fight, a 10 point must system with an emphasis on landing punches.

In the USA, Canada, and Germany, there is always 3 judges to judge a fight. I don't necessarily think one system is fairer or better than another. They are both open to manipulation, bias, and error.

In my own personal opinion, judging in boxing is a disaster, but I love the sport anyway and I always will. What would help to eliminate a margin of error though is to have more judges, 5 or 7, per titlefight. In my own opinion. Of course the drawback to that is that you'd have to pay extra judges to work that. But it should only be done in titlefights.

3 Judges is too small and just one biased judge, or one incompetent judge, can screw the whole fight up. I think that having more judges for titlefights would help eliminate some bad decisions. I'm not saying it would get rid of all corruption, but it would help to expand the # of judges IMO.
 
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werewolf

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Guess I've not seen many, if any, domestic British fights with ref alone judging - though I do remember going to a boxing match in London long ago, but I can't remember much about it except we went there on the subway what they quaintly call the tubes, and a bum at the tube entrance asked me for spare change and called me "guv'nor", and it was very crowded, and I was drinking "alf an alfs".

I believe the announcers said that Rogan was 4-1 underdog in the Harrison fight.

There was no mutual respect between Rogan and Sam Sexton. I remember the press conference for their second fight. There was no love lost there. Rogan was pounding on the table.

Here's the link to the Harrison fight:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51brNVcBXXM
 
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