Brave Jay Byrne defeated on Matchroom show in London

There was plenty of guts on show from Jay Byrne this evening in London, but no glory as the Dubliner fell to a first career defeat.

Featuring on the inaugural Matchroom NXTGEN show, Byrne took on a massive test in former elite amateur Felix Cash and, while he fell to a wide points defeat, ‘The Negotiator’ saw his standing hugely bolstered by the display

Moving up two weights following his win over Sergio Abad last month, Byrne was massively outsized by his English opponent, but gave Cash the toughest test of his career thus far.

The Loughlinstown welter certainly gave Cash something to think about, landing his fair share of shots, but the heavier and cleaner punches came from the Matchroom starlet who took a 60:54 win.

Indeed despite the huge size disadvantage, Byrne never looked in danger of being stopped and actually was goading Cash into exchanges.

The defeat sees Byrne fall to 4(1)-1(0), while Cash improves his record to 5(3)-0.

While he has now lost his 0, Byrne comes out of the bout in a better position than when he entered. The Irishman put on a game showing and will, hopefully, remain in the minds of the Matchroom team when they make their return to Ireland this year for Ryan Burnett and Katie Taylor.