LIVE UPDATES – The Breakout Undercard
The DAZN cameras come to Belfast tonight where they will try and capture a breakout moment for Kurt Walker on top of a very interesting Breakout card.
Conlan Boxing bring a fight night to the Ulster Hall and Irish-boxing.com will be ringside.
Walker verus James Beech Jr tops the card while there is a mouthwatering BUI Celtic title fight between Ruadhan Farell and Connor Kerr as chief support.
‘Quietman’ Steven Ward makes his return to the ring, while Gerard Hughes, Glen Byrne, John Boyd and Owen O’Neill all appear.
Irish-Boxing.com will be filing live reports from each fight below.
Please refresh page to see live updates below:
FIGHT #1 GLEN BYRNE – MARTY SHAW
No specialised Terry Kavanagh ring walk this time but still an entertaining display from Glenn Byrne on his TV debut.
Martin Shaw played his part in a solid opening Breakout fight and the Dub was made to work for a slightly wide 60-54 win.
The fighter who is trained and managed by his brother Jay Byrne certainly isn’t afraid of hard work and had enough about him to deal with anything the English fighter threw his way.
Byrne started and finished strong and showed the ability to switch up approaches when needed as he extended his unbeaten start at the Ulster Hall.
Byrne applied the pressure throughout the first and worked the body well, faced with a more adventurous Shaw in the second he started to land some combinations and landed some solid uppercuts.
The JB Promotions man was in a fight come round three as the away corner fighter, who drew with the onlooking Walsh previously, once again showed he comes to fight.
A flush right hand in the fourth seemed to take some of the adventure away from Shaw, although he grew back into the stanza when he walked Byrne onto an uppercut.
It set up an entertaining finish to the round, which the younger brother of Jay Byrne possibly stole with two crisp shots at the death.
Byrne was on the back foot for the majority of his first-ever fifth round, picking shots and seemingly doing enough to take the session.
Byrne moves to 3-0 with the win Shaw’s slate now reads 4- 22-3.
FIGHT #2 GERARD HUGHES – LUKE FASH
Gerard Hughes returned to winning ways and registered his first win under the tutelage of Pete Taylor in the fight night’s second clash.
Taylor, away on holiday for the late-notice clash, wasn’t actually in the corner but Hughes, who drew with co-chief support Ruadhan Farrell last time out, boxed his way to a routine victory.
Hughes won every round against Luke Fash to hand the well travelled and battle-hardened Brit his 102 career loss.
It was patient even methodical as Hughes made a joke of his ‘Short Fuse’ moniker, boxing behind a solid jab and looking to land something substantial behind it over the first two rounds.
Volume and venum were added in the third with manager Padraig McCrory calling for the Ballycastle man to ‘keep punching’.
Hughes had a look at getting the stoppage in the final round but Fash isn’t one for folding and managed to go the distance for the for the 97th time in his career.
Hughes, who is eyeing a Summer clash with the winner of Farrell versus Connor Kerr [which plays out later tonight], improves his record to 5-01. Fash’s record now readys 3-103-3.
FIGHT 3 JOHN BOYD – ALLAN WHITE
John Boyd looked as at home under the lights as he registered one of the more impressive debut wins in recent times.
Faced with a tricky start in the form of Allan ‘The Great’ White, the Dee Walsh-trained fighter secured a shutout victory.
Indeed, he looked very comfortable out of the vest and as impressive as any of the previous five fighters to defeat the Ulster Intermediate finalist.
As expected White did have moments and asked questions, making it a learning and winning start for the new-to-the-scene pro.
Boyd looked as relaxed and confident as any in the first-ever professional round. Up against a fighter looking to press and capable of picking shots, Boyd fought off the back foot early doors and showed nice shot selection, putting the icing on his debut round cake by walking IGB’s White onto a lovely backhand left.
By the second Boyd had blood smeared across the nose of Irish boxing’s favourite away fighter’s face, smiling as he landed, potentially enjoying the revenge for weigh-in antics.
White changed the approach in the third and began to ask a few more questions, evening putting a mouse on the Belfast fighter’s model-like cheekbones.
However, for the most part, the rangy light middleweight had the answers and looked classy when responding.
The Gleann graduate looked to be going for a ‘nothing silly last round’ until another little short right prompted him to let his hands go. He started to look all the more dangerous in the final minute and finished strong
Boyd gets off the mark and puts his first win on his slate, while White is now 0-6.
FIGHT 4 STEVEN WARD – PERRY HOWE
Not quite with a bang but Steven Ward is back!
The popular Belfast Mr nice guy ended a 27-month ring absence to secure his first win in three and a half years at the Ulster Hall.
It wasn’t pretty, which wasn’t Ward’s fault, but in front of the watching Carl Frampton, the 33-year-old got valuable rounds as well as a win.
The cruiserweight will now look to get busy and has big fight plans.
Ward was winning the rounds comfortably but was a little frustrated by the antic-happy Howe. The Quietman began to find range and thus success by the end of the third, realizing Howe couldn’t slip shots with his body.
It wasn’t over pretty in the fourth but the tactic began to reap reward and opened avenues for other shots.
The momentum stalled a little in the fifth but it was still a session the Belfast cruiser won comfortably.
With his name echoing around the famous venue in the final round Ward tried to put it on the experienced Howe and even called for the survival specialist to engage. But his opponent wasn’t going to risk seeing the final bell and continued to frustrate first approach, meaning the comeback kid had to settle for a points win upon his return.
Ward now has a record of 14-2 with Howe’s record reading 5-13-1.
FIGHT 5 OWEN O’NEILL – EDGAR KEMSKY
Owen O’Neill claimed victory in one of the most bizarre bouts the historic Ulster Hall has ever seen.
Away corner character took the pantomime villain approach to new levels as he pulled out every play-acting trick in the book and then some frustrating the Belfast man massively in the process.
Indeed, such was the nature of the fight it will be remembered for the madness more than anything else.
In the end ‘Triple 0’ had his hand raised after a referee’s scorecard of 40-35 was called out.
Kemsky did his best Drunken Master impression in the first minute of the fight. A warning from referee Eamonn Magil didn’t sober him up and he was docked a point soon after.
With normality restored O’Neill could get to work, although the away corner fighter showed he was capable of good work responding well.
Kemsky was back at it in the second and ‘The Operator’ had to work hard to keep his cool in what was becoming a bizarre bout.
O’Neill did manage to pin his opponent to the ropes and land some telling shots to cement another round win.
A fight broke out early in the third with both throwing leather until a big clash of heads brought about a reprieve.
O’Neill then pressed forward and tried to figure out the mad maverick out in another round remembered for antics more than boxing.
The fourth wasn’t much different with both corners frustrated at Belfast Slovak’s Norman Wisdom impression!
The win sees former BUI Celtic Champion O’Neill make a positive return and push his record 13-0, Kemsky is now a 3-8-1 fighter.
JP O’Meara – Engel Gomez
Conlan Boxing managed JP O’Meara boxed his way to a shut out 60-54 points win over the ever game Engle Gomez.
