Fighting John Phillips isn’t an enticing prospect for most people; the heavy-handed Welshman is known for blitzing through his opponents with hands of stone and a ferocity that isn’t matched by many. However, Denniston Sutherland has the unenviable job of facing Phillips for a second time after emerging victorious when the pair first met at BAMMA 1.

A Facebook call out after the first contest didn’t interest the Londoner.

“Obviously there is nothing for me to gain from this other than to beat him another time. Even if I beat him again this time, there’s still going to be ‘it was luck’ you know,” laughed Sutherland. "It’s always going to be the case; he’s never going to admit that he’s had his ass kicked.”

“Mad Max” stopped Phillips via submission from strikes in the first round of their first bout, although the Phillips camp immediately pointed to a shoulder injury as a mitigating factor, something Denniston doesn’t exactly remember fondly:

“When he came in at the start of the fight he actually broke my ribs in that first exchange. I could have complained about having bad ribs and having to stop but I didn’t. For me it seemed like a bit of a cop out.”

Denniston further vented his frustrations, noting that bias played a factor and has continued to do so since that encounter, leading to more questions than answers.

“If you listen to the commentary it’s all biased and as soon as I finished him, if you look at the tape and watch him, he looks straight at the commentary guys and starts pointing to his shoulder. What’s that about? What do they have to do with the fight? If you’ve lost the fight, you’ve lost the fight. If you get interviewed and you talk about it then fine, but why look over to the commentators and tell them it was your shoulder, you know?

“He was being touted to win it; he was the golden boy and everybody wanted him to win. If you listen to the commentary they were just talking about ‘the white Mike Tyson’. It’s been the same for quite a few fights now. Not BAMMA so much, but Ultimate Challenge.”

If there was ever a positive to draw from this negative situation though, it may be for the fans. Not content and no longer secure with leaving things in the hands of the judges, Sutherland mused, “I don’t expect to be given any fight on decision, I feel like I need to finish my fights to win, especially after what happened with Bostwick.”

After three rounds of fighting, Sutherland and Jake Bostwick went to the judge’s scorecards back in March on UCMMA: Adrenaline Rush. Although one judge thought “Mad Max” had done enough to take the victory, another two disagreed and so it was another loss on the record.

“Especially on that promotion, I felt that both times [having fought Tom Watson on UCMMA previously] I was being put in a corner - like I was never going to win unless I finished the guy and I knew that going in to both fights. I don’t think it particularly bothered me at the time; you don’t take heed until it happens.

“Against Tom Watson, it wasn’t such a bad blow. I don’t like losing but at that time I think he was ranked number one in the country and I was ranked number two so it didn’t seem like such a setback. However, the decision that went against me when I fought Bostwick, he wasn’t ranked and I was. That really hurt me that fight, to be beaten by this guy.”

Serving as fuel for the fire, Sutherland went on to stop Malik Merad in the first round in his next outing. Ominously for future opponents, Sutherland asserted, “I’m either gonna get sparked or I’m gonna spark the other guy, or choke him out or something like that.”

“I don’t want decisions anymore. It fucks with my head when I get robbed. If the guy beat me, I’ll put my hands up and say congratulations and well done and I won’t make any excuses. If I just got caught, I got caught. If he was just better than me on the night, then he was just better than me but I don’t want to ever have that situation happen again. Now, all of my fights I’m looking to finish. All of them. Or get finished! I’d rather finish people but you know, be realistic, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but they’re going to have to be inside the time limit.”

Not wanting to dwell on the past too much, Denniston looks forward to the contest in Bolton on Saturday, as Knuckleup promote a show in the North West for the first time. Before the fighters take to the cage though, they’ve got to hit the scales and this is something that has troubled Phillips of late. Fights against Paul Cahoon and Allan Love have both been sidelined on the day of the weigh-ins following the Welshman’s failure to hit the limit, and no-one wants to be declined the opportunity to see such a gripping battle because of weight issues. Sutherland is standing firm though, following accusations of his own weight troubles which he is adamant don’t tell the full story.

“Either he makes the weight or we don’t fight,” he noted. “There’ll be no agreements, no ‘we meet at this weight or that weight’. He gets on the scales and he needs to be on weight.”

Clearly troubled by the negative stories pointing in his direction, he shared the tale of how the rumours first began:

“I will make weight. I remember when I’d just moved to middleweight I had a fight up North and it was a tournament. I was told by the promoter there was a sauna nearby because I didn’t want to cut all the weight and then have a long drive, so I wanted to cut some up there. I got there and the sauna wasn’t working, I got directed to another one and that wasn’t working either. I ended up having to go in the phonebook to find one and by the time I’d done all of this and got down to weight and got to the venue, it was about twenty minutes past the weigh-in time. Anyway, I heard a lot of bullshit about me not making the weight and missing weight in front of the guy, but it’s not true. I had to wait at the venue for the promoter to turn back up and he came with one of his colleagues and I made weight in front of them too. The next thing I hear is that their word isn’t enough. I made weight, I took pictures and a video on my phone but one of the guys from Team Titan had already set off back to London and then he’s talking shit about me online. He didn’t say anything while he was here like ‘I’m not happy that I didn’t see you making weight’, he just went home and talked shit about it. Then Bulmer didn’t make weight but I said ‘look, for the show to go on and I did travel all this way, I don’t care. I’ll fight him.’ Let’s consider that my experience was above his, so we called that even.

“From then I had a reputation for not making weight when other guys were unhappy that they didn’t see me weigh in. When I fought John Phillips, I walked on the scales at 84.5kg and Phillips turned up at 86kg, and he said to me, ‘if I get to 85kg and you stay as you are, can we call it a day then?’ I said yeah, as obviously I didn’t want to go back in the sauna. Because it wasn’t a title fight anyway I think you’re allowed a pound so I was on weight. Then when I was coming to weigh in to fight Tom Watson, Phillips’ manager said I didn’t make the weight before, giving me shit for it. I thought it was like a gentleman’s agreement and it wouldn’t come out but it gave me a bad rap again, as somebody who doesn’t make weight! After that I said I don’t care, I’ll make weight and you have to make it too.”

The issue becomes as simple as that: make the weight or don’t fight.

Denniston has been preparing fervently for the bout as Phillips certainly poses a significant threat. He is prepared go down swinging, but he also expects the same of his adversary. He also knows that the three-minutes of cage time that they shared won’t necessarily dictate what is to happen when they meet again, but pain is very likely to feature at some point.

“I know he’s going to be swinging hard,” Sutherland enthused, taking stock of what might face him on Saturday. “He’s definitely going to try and hurt me. I know if I get knocked down that I’m going to get hurt on the floor before the ref stops it. I know there’s going to be a bit of pain if I make mistakes but it doesn’t matter. He still has to fight intelligently.”

Phillips, not known to be gun-shy, will have to stick to his game plan as Sutherland also has a fearsome striking game, dispatching numerous opponents with strikes including heavy-hitter Kevin Thompson and Ryan Robinson. “If he’s silly enough to think he’s going to run in and overpower me straight from the get go then that’s not a clever way to fight,” declared Denniston. “I expect him to keep his wits about him and then just try and catch me and put me away. That’s how you fight and I’m going to be doing the same. I’m not going to be over-zealous, but I’m not going to back away from him. I’m going to fight him just like I fight anybody.”

Sutherland is still hoping for a shot at the big time, and taking names of highly-ranked opposition is the best way to get you noticed. “I have to string together another win streak,” he explained. “I was on nine wins in a row and I got jacked. I could have been on 12 wins in a row, 14-2 instead of 12-4, and it really bothers me because I’d love to get to the big show, as anyone in the UK would because there’s no money in UK MMA and it can be very unprofessional, with a lot of bullshit and favouritism.”

Without looking past the task ahead, Denniston is still dreaming and hoping to one day find a way to fight with significant pay days. Although he isn’t getting any younger, he shows no signs of slowing down and for as long as his body and skills allow him to compete with the young guns successfully, you’ll be sure to find him doing so.

In closing, he vowed to make this a fight to remember and reiterated that he doesn’t intend to go the distance.

“I just know it’s going to be a decent fight. I do respect John as a fighter, well, more as a boxer. Obviously I’m going to be well aware of his body shots now and I hope to finish him. I don’t expect it to be a decision. Hell no, not with a favourite. I don’t fancy my chances with the judges!”

To use the cliché, there will be fireworks. Two of the UK’s top middleweights will put it on the line this weekend and both will come with bad intentions.

Tickets are still available and this is one you won’t want to miss. Head to www.knuckleup.co.uk now for more details.
 

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