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Tony “The Warrior” Dodson,
from the Garston district in
Liverpool in England, first saw
the light of day on July 2,
1980, and went on to become a
well-known, accomplished and
respected name on the thriving
Merseyside boxing scene.
In a professional career
spanning almost seventeen years,
he was involved in some big
fights, and captured several
championships, including the
British title and the World
Boxing Federation (WBF)
Intercontinental Super
Middleweight crown.
Dodson started boxing amateur at
Golden Gloves ABC in Liverpool,
alongside the likes of fellow
future pro Shea Neary, and went
on to win numerous tournaments,
including seven Schoolboy
championships, the Junior ABA´s
and Junior Olympic gold.
In 1999, only a few weeks after
his nineteenth birthday, he
turned professional, stopping
Michael McDermott (4-3) in 32
seconds on a relatively big show
at the Sands Centre in Carlisle,
headlined by three title bouts
featuring Michael Brodie, Derek
Roche and Charles Shepherd.
Form his second fight, Dodson
was promoted by Barry Hearn and
his Matchroom Boxing, an
alliance which would, to some
degree, last for the reminder of
his career. But, while the
talent was clear, it would not
be smooth sailing all the way
for Dodson.
After six routine victories in
his first thirteen months in the
paid ranks, Dodson lost a bit of
momentum when he fought to an
unexpected draw against
British-based Latvian Elvis
Mihailenko (2-0) on October 9,
2000 in Liverpool.
Despite the disappointment of
not winning, there was really no
shame in the result, as
Mihailenko went on to have a
fine career himself with several
impressive victories, and
retired in 2005 at 18-1-1, high
in the world rankings.
Dodson won his next six fights,
and picked up the Central Area
title in December of 2001 by
defeating Jon Penn (10-6-1) in
the second round of a fight
broadcast by Sky Sports. He was
twenty-one years old, undefeated
and fighting on TV, things
looked promising, to say the
least.
But on March 9, 2002, in
Manchester, on the undercard of
the Wayne Rigby vs. Sedat
Puskullu WBF World Light
Welterweight title fight, Dodson
was firmly brought down to earth
when he lost a six-rounder on
points to late substitute
Varujan Davtyan (0-1).
It was nothing short of a
catastrophe for the progress of
Dodson´s career that the
Birmingham-based Armenian
managed to beat him, but only a
month later he was provided with
an opportunity to rebound and
prove that the loss was a fluke.
Barry Hearn matched him with
tough American Brian “The Bull”
Barbosa (29-5) who had operated
at fringe world level for years,
and without a question the best
opponent so far for Dodson. And,
in Liverpool, he rose to
occasion and silenced his
critics with a good performance
and a 79-76 points victory.
Five months on, Dodson returned
to the ring in Liverpool against
BeNeLux champion, and former WBF
world title-challenger, Mike
Algoet (20-12) from Belgium,
with the vacant WBF
Intercontinental Super
Middleweight crown on the line.
It proved to be a tough and
closely-contested bout, but
Dodson eventually prevailed
after ten rounds, winning by one
point. Beating Barbosa and
Algoet in back-to-back outings
firmly revitalized Dodson after
the shocking loss to Davtyan,
but it would not last long.
Six weeks later, in his first
WBF title-defense, Dodson was on
the wrong end of another upset,
albeit this time against a more
accomplished foe in undefeated
Pole Albert Rybacki (11-0), who
stopped the Englishman in round
nine.
Rybacki soon after retired,
temporarily, and relinquished
the WBF belt. Hearn and
Matchroom refused to give up on
Dodson, and arranged for him to
contest the vacant title in
April of 2003 against Frenchman
Pierre Moreno (23-6).
Moreno was not considered a
puncher by any account, having
stopped only four of his
twenty-three victims, but he
never the less managed to halt
Dodson in the penultimate round.
Two stoppage defeats on the
trot, and Dodson´s career
appeared to be in dire straits.
But Matchroom continued to
believe in him, and in July of
2003 he reversed his first
defeat when Varujan Davtyan (now
3-9) retired on his stool after
three rounds with a rib injury.
Four months later Dodson won the
British Super Middleweight
title, stopping Alan Foster
(10-0-1) in eleven rounds.
Over the next twelve years,
Dodson failed to average two
fights a year, fighting only
twenty-one times after the win
over Foster. In his most
significant fights he lost to
Carl Froch (19-0), Tony Quigley
(12-1), Ovill McKenzie (19-11),
and two Liverpool grudge-matches
against Paul Smith (32-3).
His last appearance in the ring
was on January 16, 2016 in
London, beating Richard Horton
(9-5) on points in one of the
supporting bouts to David Haye´s
much-hyped comeback fight
against Mark De Mori. But it was
really not supposed to be the
end.
In fact, Matchroom had secured
him another big fight, as Dodson
was scheduled to fight
up-and-comer Horsea Burton for
the British Light Heavyweight
title on May 29, 2016 on the
undercard of the Tony Bellew vs.
Ilunga Makabu WBC world title
fight at Goodison Park in
Liverpool.
But faith would have it that
Dodson snapped his Achilles in
preparations, and was forced to
pull out. When healed, he
trained for a comeback, and
wanted to get at least one last
fight in 2017, but for whatever
reason it never happened.
In early 2018 he formally
announced his retirement from
boxing, thirty-five years old
and with a record of 32-8-1
(15).
When he officially ended his
career as a boxer, Dodson had
already qualified as a
firefighter and worked full time
with Merseyside Fire & Rescue.
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