On This Day: August 2nd
2014: Paddy Barnes and Mick Conlan claimed top prize at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. Light flyweight Barnes defeated talented Indian Laishram Devender Singh to defend the gold medal he had won four years previously in New Delhi. The Holy Family fighter had strolled to the final in Scotland with third round stoppage wins over Tanzanian Hamadi Furahisha and Papua New Guinea’s Charles Keama before outpointing Ugandan Fazil Juma Kaggwa in the semis.
Barnes’s Belfast buddy Conlan was forced to deal with a lack of preparation time and a nasty cut, but still overcame England’s Qais Asfaq in the bantamweight decider. Before this the Clonard boxer had racked up wins against Nauru’s Matthew Martin, Indian Shiva Thapa, Ugandan Bashir Nassir, and Welsh boxer Sean McGoldrick.
1923: Clare light heavyweight Mike McTigue defended his World title at the Playgrounds Stadium in New Jersey in a rematch against Canadian Tommy Loughran. Like in their first fight two months previously, the Philidelphia slugger needed to knock out the Irishman to win the title, but the bout again went the distance and Bold Mike retained his title – and was adjudged by the boxing writers at ringside to have won the fight.
1958: Jimmy Brown knocked out champion Peter Sharpe in the sixth round of a Belfast derby at the Oval to win the BBBoC Northern Irish lightweight title. Brown would lose the belt in his next bout two months later, being outpointed by Jim ‘Spike’ McCormack at the Kings Hall.
