Fagan comes up short in ‘fight of the year contender’

IT was all guts and no glory for Oisin Fagan as he won respect, fans, plaudits but not the WBF Intercontinental Lightweight title in Chester last night.

Gael Force came forward for 12 rounds, displaying the kind of grit and determination has become renowned for, but ultimately lost out to Chris Goodwin.

Judges Mickey Vann, Paul Thomas and Ken Curtis all saw the fight widely in favor of Goodwin: 118-112, 118-111 and 119-111, but it could have been scored closer and the tallies are not an indication of how evenly contested and entertaining the fight was.

Indeed such was the battle the WBF press release described it as a potential fight of the Year.

“With the crowd roaring and cheering throughout the fight, Goodwin showed the better skills while Fagan displayed enormous grit and determination with his constant attacking. It was non-stop action for twelve rounds and a sure candidate for WBF Fight of the Year.”

Chris Goodwin (25) raised his professional record to 18-2-1 (0) since turning pro in 2006, and former Irish Champion Oisin Fagan (40), a prizefighter since 2003, falls to 27-9 (16).

In the evenings co-feature, Paul Economides had little trouble taking care of 21-year-old Hungarian David Kanalas to capture the vacant WBF International Super Bantamweight crown in a scheduled ten-rounder.

Economides started fast, and chased his opponent with good combinations to body and head. Driving Kanalas to the ropes, he unleashed with hard punches and looked like a man on a mission to get home early.

After 59 seconds of the second round, with Kanalas in all sorts of trouble, referee Paul Thomas had seen enough and stopped the fight after Economides connected with a perfect left hook to floor Kanalas.

This is the first significant title-win for 27-year-old Economides, who improved his ledger to 14-5 (1). Kanalas drops to 14-11 (7).