Holiday Inn ring side report- impressive debuts from Bates and Magee

By Aaron Agnew

Belfast Promotions kicked a great month of local professional boxing with an entertaining show in the Holiday Inn, Ormeau Avenue Belfast. With another fight at the same venue next Saturday and the Waterfront Brawl coming up, boxing fans are in for a treat in the month of June.

Heavyweight Kenneth Odeke started the show with a comfortable 40-36 victory over journeyman Moses Matovu.

Ballyclares Willie Thompson followed it up with a 40-36 win over a very stubborn Liam Griffiths before Paul Hyland Jr followed up his points victory over Zoltan Horvath in the Devenish with another points win 40-36 over Swindon’s Joe Beedon.

Dubliner Ciaran Bates made an impressive start to his professional boxing career dispatching Mihaly Szalontai after just 46 seconds with a number of head and body combinations.

Another debutant who made an impressive start career was Eamonn Magee Jr, after making the Hungarian Zoltan Horvath wobble with a right hand the 21 year old ‘jumped on him’ putting him down for the 8 count however once he got himself back up it was quickly stopped by referee Paul McCullagh when Magee went to work on him again.

Dublin middleweight Luke Keeler took his record to 5 wins zero defeats following a 4th round knockout victory over Trad TKOs boxer Festim Lama. Albanian Lama was down twice over the 4 rounds before a combinations of upper cuts  from Keeler ended the fight to Festims disbelief.

Immaculata boxer Alfredo Meli continued his unbeaten run with a 60-54 points victory over Dan Blackwell. A great scrap between Meli and Blackwell certainly gave the fans their money’s worth and ended a great show of boxing.