Birmingham’s ‘The 0-Taker’ Ben Fields put on a warrior’s performance and showed the heart of a lion when he took on the unbeaten Jack Rafferty for the Super-Lightweight Silver Commonwealth title (16.9.23). The contest was over ten rounds and was held at Olympia Liverpool and was promoted by Mark Bateson. Field (33) came into the contest with a record of twelve wins and four draws out of Twenty-nine contests with him stopping his last opponent in the first round in June of this year. Rafferty (27) from Manchester has an unbeaten record of Twenty victories with eleven coming by way of stoppage. Both fighters came into the contest weighing ten stone dead with Ron Kearney reffing.
Rafferty got his jab going from the start of the first round letting off nice one-twos with Fields pressing and stalking Rafferty as both fighters took a look at each other. Rafferty dictated the pace of the second round as he pumped out his jab as Fields kept a tight guard, Fields got a few good shots off but had not really got going yet. Rafferty kept his jab going in the third and picked some nice shots as Fields kept it tight but when he did land shots, he looked effective. Rafferty’s jab was the key and caught Fields with a nice right hand and some nice slick uppercuts, this seemed to kickstart Fields who got some good shots off with Rafferty catching Fields with a low blow.
Fields came to life in the fifth and started to let his hands go banging in shots to Rafferty’s head and body and pushing him back, Rafferty returned fire but Fields won the round. Fields went back to work in the sixth and was looking like he was growing into the fight, Rafferty fought well on the back foot and caught Fields with a nice body shot with Fields having to take a knee. Fields took the count got up at six and was allowed to carry on, Fields showed a true warrior mentality as Rafferty unloaded with some heavy body shots while Fields fought back and saw the round out. Rafferty sustained a cut above his left eye near the end of the round. Rafferty targeted Fields body in the seventh round with Fields fighting back hard but you could see these body shots were hurting him. Rafferty came out with intent in the eighth picking heavy shots well with Fields taking them and coming back strong getting some good shots off. Fields continued to press forward in the ninth and got some good shots off, Rafferty picked some nice shots on the back foot but when he went on the attack he caught Fields with a nice combination ending with a lovely left hook, Fields went down for the second time he was up by the count of seven and allowed to continue. Rafferty poured on the pressure as Fields covered up and fought back when he could, the ref jumped in and stopped the fight one minute twenty-two seconds into the ninth round.
Rafferty wins TKO ninth round.
Dexter’s Thoughts
The first thing I’ll say is well done to Jack Rafferty who executed a great game plan and display of boxing to be only the second fighter to stop Ben Fields. As for Ben he showed the heart and the determination of a true warrior and battled hard but was in with a determined fighter who had a game plan to beat the ‘0-Taker’. Ben has come a hell of a long way from when he walked through the doors of Fightden (now known as Cogans Corner) in his early twenties. If you know his story you know what an inspirational person he is, coming through drug addiction and prison to winning Midland’s area titles and fighting for a Commonwealth Silver Title. I did think Ben started a bit slowly and that if he had come out the usual ‘0-Take’ way it may have changed the outcome, but Ben showed lots of heart and determination, and that he is definitely at this level. It didn’t happen for him this time but if I know Ben if he gets another chance at one of the bigger domestic titles, he will be there what ever the notice.