Valiant loss in front of home crowd

By Ben Hope
CRANBOURNE’S Daniel ‘Porky’ Lovett is understandably disappointed after losing his Light Heavyweight Title fight against Queensland’s Shane McConville at Cranbourne Racecourse on Saturday night.
A home crowd of 1500 greeted Lovett with a huge cheer of support as he entered the ring, proving he was still a favourite in Cranbourne despite only competing in one fight since 2008.
Coach Jim Slatter wasn’t sure what went wrong as the 183-cm Lovett faced McConville in the 10-round title fight, his first since he faced Kashif Mumtaz last October.
“I know he was bitterly disappointed he didn’t perform in front of his home crowd and maybe that pressure had something to do with it. He is a great young bloke and it is a real pity he didn’t make it past the post,” Slatter said.
“His training was good and he was in really great shape but he just didn’t perform on the night.”
“The other bloke was a very good boxer, but with his experience, Porky should have been able to handle him.”
Lovett dominated the first two rounds of the fight but McConville’s five-centimetre height advantage and recent fight experience began to pay off from the third round. Despite heavy bleeding from an eye injury after a head clash, McConville used his extra reach to dominate the final seven rounds. At the end on the final round the judges scored the fight at 94-98, 95-95 and 93-97, giving McConville a close victory.
“Porky did get close to him in the first few rounds and he went really well,” Slatter said.
“He cut McConville’s eye very badly early on but he never got the points up. In super-middleweight Porky was knocking blokes out, at light heavyweight they are just too big and too long for him.”
Lovett’s own eye injury, which left him unable to spar for a week in the lead-up to the fight, held together until a head knock in the final round.
“Porky cut his eye in the lead-up to the fight and that left him unable to spar for seven days after it had to be stitched and re-stitched,” Slatter said.
“Luckily it didn’t re-open until the final round.”
Fight promoter Barry Michael said the Cranbourne Racecourse did a fantastic job on the night, despite rain forcing them to move the ring under cover.
“Porky fought well but I think he was fighting out of his weight, the blokes are just too big for him,” Michael said.
“McConville was just too big and Porky was probably a bit short of a gallop, only having six rounds over the last two years.”
“We would definitely have a fight at the racecourse again, everyone absolutely loved it. It was a shame we had to move it under cover but it came up really well.
Cranbourne Turf Club chief executive officer Neil Bainbridge said the club was happy to be involved in the event and the crowd was well behaved.
“Lovett was clearly the crowd favourite and the night ran very smoothly,” Bainbridge said.
“There was an electric atmosphere on the night as locals cheered Lovett on and we were really pleased to be involved.”
For now, Lovett won’t book another fight until after surgery on a floating bone in his elbow that also plagued him throughout training. When he does return to boxing it will most likely be in the super-middleweight division.
“We will have a look at dropping down to super-middleweight division where he should be,” Slatter said.
“All we can do is start again and see how we go but we won’t be booking any fight for a little while yet.”