Danny Connor steals the show!

By Jack Price @PriceyJ97.

We were expecting fireworks and excitement from Matchroom Boxing's London's Finest show on March 9th at Wembley Arena, but there was only really one fight and one man that caught the attention of the fans. And that was actually in the first fight of the night; A highly anticipated rematch between Danny Connor and Chris Evangelou for the Southern Area light-welterweight title.

The champion Connor won a controversial unanimous decision when the two fighters met for the first time back in September of last year and he was desperate to prove that it wasn't a fluke. This showed throughout the fight as he never stopped battling and looked like the man who wanted it that tiny bit more.

Evangelou, looking to avenge the only loss of his career, started well but lacked the speed and sharpness that we have seen from him in previous outings. Connor, urged on by his army of fans, took advantage of his opponent's lack of urgency and upped his work-rate from the 2nd round onward. Evangelou was rumored to have struggled to make the weight and this did seem to be the case as the 27-year old just didn't seem to have it in him to pick up the pace and bring the fight back to Connor.



An even bigger surprise came in Round 7 when Connor, who had never scored a knock down in his career, dropped Evangelou twice with a body shot in the last minute of the round. Evangelou did well to survive the remaining 30 seconds only to take even more punishment at the start of Round 8. Connor at points was a bit over-keen to hurt his opponent which allowed the skillful Evangelou to score some solid counter punches and slowly work his way back into the fight. Unfortunately for 'The Flash' this spell of success didn't last long as Connor once again dug deep and refused to let his opponent gain momentum.

At the end of the fight it was clear that this time there would be no controversy. Connor was given the win with a points win of 97-93 and this time it was thoroughly deserved.

At 26 years old the Hackbridge-man is now in by far the best position of his career. After losing and drawing his first 5 fights as a professional he is now on a 5-fight winning streak and a well-deserved Southern Area champion. After a dominant victory over an opponent of Evangelou's calibre you can definitely expect to see him in some bigger fights in the near future. If he can rack up a few more impressive victories this year we could even see him earn a British title shot in a wide-open domestic light-welterweight division next year.