Newcastle Arena, Newcastle – In a battle for the British super welterweight title, Scott Fitzgerald (14-0, 9 KOs) won what was a questionable twelve round unanimous decision over Ted Cheeseman (16-2-1, 9 KOs). The scores were 116-113, 116-113 and 115-113.
Their mutual promoter, Eddie Hearn, felt Cheeseman had outboxed Fitzgerald for at least eight to nine rounds.
Fitzgerald was coming off his March cracker split decision victory over Anthony Fowler.
Cheeseman was coming in from what was a lackluster 2019, with a decision loss to Sergio Garcia in February and then a twelve round split draw with Kieron Conway in June – although most felt Cheeseman had clearly won that fight.
The contest began as a very calculated boxing match. Cheeseman was boxing and moving, making things very tough for Fitzgerald. He continued to boxing his way to making Fitzgerald miss many of his shots, while landing counters.
The jabs and quick punches by Cheeseman were dictating everything. Fitzgerald was just not able to land much of anything and was getting picked off when attempting to land his shots. In the ninth, Cheeseman was picking up the pace with his punches and began to throw more combinations, with shots also going to the body. Fitzgerald was doing his best to get in close to land big hits.
Fitzgerald was making it more of a fight in the tenth. He was closing the gap and landing some shots, but Cheeseman was still answering back. The action played out in a similar manner during the eleventh, with Fitzgerald really targeting the body and putting his punches together.
In the twelfth, Fitzgerald came out firing as he sensed that he might be behind on points. He was digging back to the body. Cheeseman was still on the move, boxing and using defense to get out of trouble.