On This Day: October 12th
2015: Moate’s Joe Ward guaranteed silver at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar. The light heavyweight, one of only three Irish boxers to win multiple World Championships medals, defeated Uzbek Elshod Rasulov to make the final. The Westmeath talent had earlier beaten Ukranian Olexandr Khizhnyak, and Belarussian Mikhail Dauhaliavets. In the final Ward was beaten by the supremely talented Cuban Julio Cesar La Cruz.
1981: In the first defence of his British heavyweight title, Fermanagh’s Gordon Ferris was stopped inside a round by Jamaican-born Neville Meade in Birmingham. A huge right cross left the Enniskillen fighter face down for the count.
Watch Gordon Ferris v Neville Meade in full below:
1907: Jem Roche defended his Irish heavyweight title for a third time. The Wexford legend knocked out Charlie Wilson in the eighth round at the Empire Theatre in Dublin.
1965: Belfast’s Peter Sharpe stopped Donegal’s Henry Turkington in the ninth round at the Ulster Hall to claim the vacant BBBoC Northern Irish middleweight title. The win saw Sharpe become a three-weight champ following previous reigns at lightweight and middleweight.
1965: Also on the card in Belfast that night was a vacant Northern Irish bantamweight title clash between local duo Jim McCann and Alex O’Neill. In what was just his third professional fight, McCann stopped O’Neill in the ninth.
