Who turned on the oven ?-Irish boxing heats up !

Big Ears

a few months ago it seemed as if Irish boxing was going nowhere, that nothing was really(at least not in a hurry) and that most Irish fighters were merely threading water.

Andy Lee's comeback win over Willie Gibbs and Matthew Macklin's win over Yori Boy Campas seemed the biggest fights we were going to get this year and with Duddy having management problems it seemed we weren't going to get anything big for a while after the new year aswell.

Bernard Dunne's big fight with Edurado Garcia disappeared and we were left to make due with Cristian Faccio, not a terrible fighter but nothing that really did too much for Dunne.

Paul Hyland lost to a Puerto Rican journeyman in America, seemingly setting him back quite a bit.

James Moore lost this year to Gabriel Rosdado, which looked like relegating him to 'learning fights' for a little while longer.

Colin McKenna has become a journeyman, losing 7 of his last 8.
Macklin after signing with Frank Warren looked destined to be held back till he could be put in a World title fight without having faced anyone decent.
But now things have suddenly seemed to click.

Martin Linday knocked out former IBF #3 contender Derry Matthews in a British title eliminator and is now set to face british champion Paul Appleby in March, at home in Belfast.

Oisín Fagan managed to finally get himself a big fight, being the opponent for Amir Khan's comeback. Granted he was dispatched easily.

James Moore has got a fight with Yuri Foreman for the NABF title. Foreman's World rankings are 4th(WBC), 6th(IBF) and 8th(WBC), so a win there for Moore would be massive.

Martin Rogan who last year nearly retired due to being unable to get fights, won 3 fights in the same night to become prizefighter champion and then defeated the formally World ranked(all 4 of them had him in at some point) Audley Harrison. Rogan now looks likely to face Matt Skelton for the European title if Skelton can defeat Paolo Vidoz.

Paul McCloskey looked sensational in winning the British Light-Welterweight title on a weeks notice and defeating former British, European and IBO champion Colin Lynes. McCloskey will get a European shot before long providing he doesn't lose in a british title defence.

Brian Magee fights Stevie McGuire for the British Super-Middleweight title on Saturday and on the same bill Jason McKay fights Darren Barker for the Commonwealth Middleweight title.

Matthew Macklin will fight Wayne Elcock for the British Middleweight title in March and with Barker v McKay believed to be an eliminator the winner will probably face off sometime next year too.

Paul Hyland and Eugene Heagney are facing off in a week aswell, with the winner looking likely to face Ian Napa for the European Bantamweight title.

Henry Coyle had his first fight on home soil.

Andy lee will be back once his cuts have healed.

Dean Byrne is progressing nicely in America(fighting again in just over a week
).
Patrick Hyland had 7 fights this year and looks likely to be pushed up a level soon.

Gary O'Sullivan is coming on well(and fights next week).

Simon O'Donnell has come back well since his last and is progressing in America.

Stephen Haughian has had a good year, recently getting revenge on Grassellini(Haughian fights again Saturday)

Scott Jordan returned to action recently with a win, as did Kevin O'Hara.
Michael Gomez has picked up two wins since his loss to Khan.
Peter McDonagh got a big win in Canada and it seems everything is really on the up.

All we need is to see dates announced for Andy Lee and Bernard Dunne's next fights(which should happen around March), and Andrew Murray to get himself a fight. Other than that what we need is some wins in those highlighted fights.

Lets not forget Darren Sutherland is just about to turn pro too.

simongurnick

Could be an exciting year.
Where did mcDonagh fight in Canada? Is he based there now?

03mcgs0

Good article BigEars, and I thought you had gone a little quite of late but pull out a great thread!

Big Ears wrote: »

and Andrew Murray to get himself a fight.

Understatement of the Year!!! Yes he certainly does... hope in 09 he can kick on a get some decent fights, a couple of his fights earlier this year were a joke with opponents just wanting to pick up a pay cheque and run.

Hope all goes well for Irish Boxing in 09

alanceltic

nice summary but to think that you forgot to mention that dunne is certain for a world title shot around easter time is unforgivable :D

joepenguin

Great post bigears. Theres far more depth to the Irish scene now with a lot off guys coming through this year and a few potential European and World title fights.

Macklin-Elcock would be a great fight.

Big Ears

simongurnick wrote: »

Could be an exciting year.
Where did mcDonagh fight in Canada? Is he based there now?

No, he just got a fight as the opponent against a Romanian Canadian(which there seems to be a strange amount of around at the moment) prospect and upset the odds.

Easily the biggest win of his career that didn't involve any controversy.

It'd be great if we could get a Gomez v McDonagh rematch as an eliminator for the Irish title, and have it on the undercard of Andrew Murray v Oisín Fagan(obviously the main event)


03mcgs0 it really is true that Murray needs fights and needs the level of them stepped up considerably. Although he fought in two scheduled 8 rounders and 2 scheduled 10 rounders last year, McDonagh was the only one of the 4 men who really came to fight.
He hasn't fought in 5 months now and has no fight scheduled which seems a terrible waste for one of Ireland's best prospects.

He needs 4/5 good quality fights next year, and if he still looks promising towards the end of those stick him in for the European title. It might be a good idea to try and grab the EU title for Murray, after he's defended his Irish title once or twice.

sston

joepenguin wrote: »

Macklin-Elcock would be a great fight.

It's happening on March 7 in Birmingham with ITV 4 televising.

Big Ears

sston wrote: »

It's happening on March 7 in Birmingham with ITV 4 televising.

It was an £80,000 purse bid from Hennessey apparently aswell.
Warren offered £50,000.

For those who aren't accustomed to British title fights that's huge money, and should result in Macklin getting £32,000 of that purse(minus manager/promoter fee, trainer fee, tax etc).

The reason for the huge bid is this bout will be massive in the Midlands of England. There isn't that much boxing round there these days but there is a keen interest for it. Elcock and (particularly) Macklin are very big ticket sellers aswell and this is the fight the midlands has been crying out for, with two Birmingham lads aswell this will be especially massive.

Elcock's 6th in the European ratings, Macklin's 10th. The winner of this could find themselves pretty close to a European title shot. Considering Barker's 8th, whoever comes through as the best of this trio(because unfortunately Barker will beat McKay) will most likely be 1 fight away at most from being European mandatory.

simongurnick

Big Ears wrote: »

No, he just got a fight as the opponent against a Romanian Canadian(which there seems to be a strange amount of around at the moment) prospect and upset the odds.

Easily the biggest win of his career that didn't involve any controversy.

It'd be great if we could get a Gomez v McDonagh rematch as an eliminator for the Irish title, and have it on the undercard of Andrew Murray v Oisín Fagan(obviously the main event)


03mcgs0 it really is true that Murray needs fights and needs the level of them stepped up considerably. Although he fought in two scheduled 8 rounders and 2 scheduled 10 rounders last year, McDonagh was the only one of the 4 men who really came to fight.
He hasn't fought in 5 months now and has no fight scheduled which seems a terrible waste for one of Ireland's best prospects.

He needs 4/5 good quality fights next year, and if he still looks promising towards the end of those stick him in for the European title. It might be a good idea to try and grab the EU title for Murray, after he's defended his Irish title once or twice.

Yeah, there's one at light heavy too I think, holds a belt aswell. No irregular betting patterns around this fight though

Big Ears

simongurnick wrote: »

Yeah, there's one at light heavy too I think, holds a belt aswell. No irregular betting patterns around this fight though

Adrian Diaconu, holds the WBC Light-Heavyweight title vacated by Chad Dawson. Dawson's team refused to face Diaconu after he had won the WBC interim title because Diaconu's side won the purse bids and wanted to fight in Romania and Dawson's camp just thought, **** it......we'll just fight Tarver for his title and more American exposure instead.

Diaconu is limited but with his style he probably would of tested Dawson, he's quite small but applies pressure pretty well looking to land big shots.

Lucien Bute the IBF Super-Middleweight champion is also Romanian Canadian.
Aswell as Inout Dan Ion, who's swiftly moving up the Light-Welterweight World rankings.

Victor Puiu a Romanian also holds the Canadian Welterweight title.
There's more aswell but I can't think of them.

simongurnick

Jesus, didn't know Bute had a Romanian background too. Funny to see that many Canadian-romanians. I live in Canada so follow a lot of the guys here. Pity I missed the Mcdonagh fight and I was hoping Dunne would end up fighting Molitor although their paths may cross yet.
Thats kind of **** with Dawson, that would have been a good bout but obviously Tarver is a way higher profile, although considering the eastern european dominance of heavyweight boxing a world title fight in Romania should not be out of the question.

Big Ears

Some good results tonight, aswell as one bad(but expected result).

Brian Magee did well in stopping Stevie McGuire in 8 rounds, flooring the Scotsman 3 times with body shots. The first 4/5 rounds were class but then Magee's class started to tell and he broke McGuire to the body, having him down twice in the 6th. He then started to land plenty of quality shots to the head before landing another terrific body shot ending McGuire's challenge in the 8th.

Magee is definitely past his prime and not the same man who lost a close fight to Robin Reid and was robbed in a European title fight against Vitali Tsypko.
Infact he's not event the same man that gave Carl Froch plenty of trouble before being ko'ed in the 11th. However he's still more than good enough at British level and should be good enough to beat Tony Dodson.

Dodson is the best British fighter after Froch, and while he would give Magee a very tough time I think Magee's greater size, class and power would be too much. Another option for Magee will be Commonwealth champion Jermain Mackey, who like Dodson would prove tough but Magee should have enough to get the better of him. A shot at the European title before the end of next year is clearly the aim with Magee, and he'll surely want that Commonwealth title along the way.

I missed the McKay v Barker fight unfortunately, but McKay was unsurprisingly stopped in 6 rounds after being retired by his corner. Barker is a really classy fighter but just lacks the required power and toughness for World level. He's solid European level though and there's no shame for McKay losing here. Where McKay goes from here I'm not sure, maybe lure Jim Rock out of retirement for an Irish title fight ?

I got a mighty shock when I turned on the tv aswell, I didn't catch this bill from the start. But I saw Peter McDonagh celebrating a win :eek:, I hadn't a clue he was fighting tonight. Anyway McDonagh beat prospect Lee Purdy for the British Southern Area title. It was apparently a really good fight(McDonagh's normally are) and McDonagh was supposedly on the verge of stopping Purdy a few times. Well done McDonagh and I have to say if he didn't deserve a rematch with Gomez he does now. 2 cracking wins back to back.

Finally well done Mick Hennessey on promoting another fantastic bill, okay I've only seen one fight and heard analysis on the others but he is consistently putting up much better quality cards than Warren ever did. Okay some of the boxing may be considered a lower level than what Warren put up but in truth it's not. Warren had fights which had 1 quality fighter and 1 poor foreign import. Hennessey has 2 good quality domestic fighters battling their all for domestic honours,aswell as Froch v Pascal and Thaxton v Melero on the bigger occasions. The man's delivering and delivering in style and if ITV fails to draw viewers the quality won' be the reason.
I'm sure ITV will be happy though, they'll be paying Hennessey much less than Warren.

joepenguin

McDonagh-Purdy was a brilliant fight. Didnt know he was fighting either but it was such a good fight, the 2 guys really wanted it.

Unfortunately missed Magee and McKays fights.

gscully

Big Ears wrote: »

All we need is to see dates announced for Andy Lee and Bernard Dunne's next fights(which should happen around March), and Andrew Murray to get himself a fight. Other than that what we need is some wins in those highlighted fights.

I've heard from a friend of the Lee family that it's possible Andy will headline a bill at Madison Square Garden on St. Patrick's Day, with a warm-up fight probably in January.

joepenguin

http://www.irish-boxing.com/stories/december08/december08_lee_fagan_update.html

Looks like things are on the up for Lee alright.

I wonder if we will see Sutherland-Lee down the line?

Big Ears

joepenguin wrote: »

http://www.irish-boxing.com/stories/december08/december08_lee_fagan_update.html

Looks like things are on the up for Lee alright.

I wonder if we will see Sutherland-Lee down the line?

Sutherland's a big Super-Middleweight and Lee shouldn't have to fight above Middleweight anytime in the next 10 years so no, no need for it really.

Sutherland v Brian Magee is a cross roads fight that will probably happen sometime in the next few years.

joepenguin

Was there not talk of Lee moving up to super middle in the future and that he would outgrow middleweight?

Big Ears

joepenguin wrote: »

Was there not talk of Lee moving up to super middle in the future and that he would outgrow middleweight?

I dunno but if there was it wasn't coming from Lee's management.
Despite his height and reach Lee's not really that huge of a Middleweight.

What I mean by that is he's a genuine Middleweight alright, but doesn't have to put in the work that guys like Pavlik or Abraham do to make the weight.
He shouldn't need to move up in weight for a considerable amount of time and if he does move up it is likely to be because of opportunities rather than weight problems.

Being a little bored I added up the average weight for Lee's fights and it was 160 1/2 lbs. Considering only one of these was a title fight(and that was at 168), and that he generally would be allowed weigh between 162-164(they're the usually the agreed non title weights for middleweight fights).
In his Irish Super-Middleweight title fight he came in at just 162 1/2

Obviously at 24 he'll find it tougher to cut weight in the future than he does now, but I can't see him having a problem for some time yet.