Stephen Ormond secures big summer rematch
Dublin lightweight Stephen Ormond [27(13)-5(1)] will get a chance at revenge in Cardiff this summer.
It has been confirmed that ‘The Rock’ will face Newport’s Craig Evans [19(9)-2(1)] for a second time on Saturday June 1st at the Vale Sports Arena in the chief support bout of an #MTKFightNight card.
The pair fought in the summer of 2017, with Evans defeating Ormond – dropping the Celtic Warriors man twice in the final round having taken over mid-rounds to ensure a clear unanimous decision victory on the cards [99-89, 97-91, 96-93].
The fight will again be for the Welshman’s WBO European rankings title – with Evans currently enjoying his second reign – and the card will be shown live in America via the ESPN+ app and on YouTube via iFL TV.
After beating Ormond, in what was an ugly and messy fight, Evans went away to Russia and was stopped in the ninth round by Roman Andreev – a bout in which he was up on the cards. The southpaw reclaimed the rankings belt belt with competitive win over Boy Jones in London last November.
Following the loss at the Waterfront Hall, Ormond would then be controversially defeated by Paul Hyland Jr at the SSE Odyssey Arena. The Clondalkin fighter roared back to beat WBO #15 Georgie Ashie in Glasgow last August – but was not rewarded with a ranking for this.
The 35-year-old has been in the gym constantly under coach Paschal Collins and stayed sharp last month with a four-round points win over Oscar Amador.
29-year-old Evans now holds the #15 spot in the WBO whose current champ is Ukrainian king Vasyl Lomachenko and Ormond will be hoping to finally get back in the mix having lost a final eliminator to Terry Flanagan way back in 2015.
The card in just over six weeks’ time is headlined by a European flyweight title fight between local favourite Jay Harris and Spaniard Angel Moreno – who challenged WBC champion Charlie Edwards last month.
The undercard in the Valleys features Alex Hughes, David White, Kieran Gething, Maredudd Thomas, Jake Robinson, Rhys Edwards, and Jacob Lovell, with more to be confirmed.
