Boxers Alen Babic and Mark Bennett produce sloppy heavyweight bout

Heavyweight boxers Alen Babic and Mark Bennett left their boxing skills at home as they wildly flailed for five rounds before the referee stopped the fight. 

On Saturday, Aug. 7, the weather conditions at Matchroom Fight Camp in Brentwood, Essex, U.K., were very sloppy, and so was the action in the boxing ring between heavyweights Alen Babic and Mark Bennett.

Neither fighter was concerned with skills or strategy. It looked like something out of a 90s Tough Man tournament. Babic had better conditioning, which allowed him to outlast a gassed Bennett.

Babic (8-0, 8 KOs), 30, from Croatia, came into their fight with a perfect record and KO rating, but his opposition hasn’t been great. Bennett (7-2, 1 KO), 33, from England, didn’t look like a step up. The action was entertaining but in a sideshow type of way.

Babic hurt Bennett early in round 1. Bennett fired back and hurt Babic a few times, but he looked out on his feet.

Fans at Matchroom HQ Garden enjoyed the slugging affair between Alen Babic and Mark Bennett, but it wasn’t pretty

Bennett had to spit his mouthpiece out twice to survive the round. The ploy worked as it bought Bennett a lot of recovery time, and he didn’t lose a point.

In round 2, Bennett rallied a bit. He backed Babic to the ropes with slow, looping punches, but they made an impact. Babic came right back, and Bennet was a human punching bag for the remainder of the fight.

Bennett took a beating in rounds 3, 4, and 5. He was exhausted and offered up very little offense. It got so bad in round 5 that the commentators compared Bennett’s performance to Homer Simpson’s cartoon boxing bout against Drederick Tatum, a play on Mike Tyson in The Simpsons.

Like Homer, Bennett took punch after punch, but the referee did the right thing by stopping the fight after round 5. Bennett’s corner should have stopped the fight much sooner.

Babic is an undersized heavyweight and looks more like a brawler than a skilled boxer. He’s fun to watch oddly but doesn’t have a high ceiling.

Despite the ugly fight in the ring, Babic warmed hearts as he proposed to his girlfriend of five years. She said yes.

It was a good night for Babic, although he didn’t prove he has the ability to rise as a heavyweight.