Sean Turner returns from first career defeat with win over Olympian

Sean Turner opened the show in Belfast this evening with the first Irish win of the night.

The Dublin heavyweight was the first fighter up on the Ginley Promotions ‘Danger at The Devenish’ bill on the Finaghy Road.

In his first fight back since his shock defeat to Kamil Sokolowski in April, Turner got back to winning ways in dominant fashion.

Initially due to rematch the Plymouth-based Pole, Turner ended up facing Cameroonian Blaise Mendouo and scored a comeback victory.

A Commonwealth Games bronze medalist and London Olympian, Mendouo began quite negatively, but the fight would open up into an entertaining scrap in the second half as the Shankill man claimed a points win.

Turner wobbled the legs of the African early in the first, and Mendouo would begin to circle and avoid trading.

This negative circling continued in the second, much to Turner’s displeasure, and the home fighter looked to load up whenever he managed to trap Mendouo.

‘Big Sexy’ began to have more success in the first half of the third before Mendouo got on his bike again.

The Manchester-based Cameroonian was told to engage more during the break, and came out trading in the fourth as the air both landed big uppercuts. Turner would land a left hook that brought gasps from the crowd but Mendouo, who had only been previously stopped by Daniel Dubois, stood firm.

The Pete Taylor-trained Turner continued to land big shots in the penultimate round, but Mendouo was managing to survive the storm.

Going into the final round, Big Sexy began to play-act, looking to entertain the fans while firing off volleys of shots until the bell.

Going to the referee’s card with no doubt, Turner was awarded the win on a scoreline of 60-54.

The result sees Turner get back to winning ways and improve to 11(7)-1(0). Mendouo drops to 3(0)-5(1).