Weekend round-up

15 December 2008 – David Boyle

Saturday was a busy night for Irish boxing on both sides of the Atlantic.

First off Brian Magee continued his revival as he punished Steve McGuire to claim the British super-middleweight title in Brentwood, Essex.

33-year-old Belfastman Magee (now 33-3-1 22KO) slowly built up momentum with cruel body shots. Then in the sixth round he finally dropped McGuire with a stinging blow to the body. He repeated this in the seventh round before pounding McGuire into submission in the eighth.

Magee is once again thriving after a number of setbacks in major title fights. But on Saturday night he re-established his reputation as one of the best Irish boxers of his generation with promises of further title action in 2009.

On the same card, Jason McKay was in action against the star in the making Darren Barker. However it was to be a dissapointing night for Banbridge man McKay (now 20-3-0).

From the opening bell Barker was to much for the Irishman, rocking him with two right hands in the first round. McKay, to his credit, took everything that Barker threw at him until finally at the end of the sixth his corner pulled him out.

Also featuring in Brentwood was former Irish light-welterweight champion Peter McDonagh (13-13-0 2KO) who earned got a hard fought 10 round points victory over Lee Purdy.

Across the Atlantic, in the Broadwalk Hall Atlantic City, 2001 World bronze medalist James Moore was in action.

Taking a risk in a huge step up in class against Yuri Foreman (27-0-0 8KO), Moore prepared for battle with a month sparring in Freddie Roache’s Wild Card gym in Hollywood.

However, Moore struggled from the first bell. Picked his man off with overhand rights, Foreman was reluctant to let Moore into the fight moving very well throughout. By the end of the first it was clear that Moore had an uphill struggle on his hands.

It soon became apparent that the first round was to be the script for the whole fight. Despite the Irishman’s best efforts Foreman was able to stop him in his tracks with overhand rights and left hooks. In the end Foreman picked up a wide unanimous decision.

All in all a mixed bag of goodies for Irish Fight fans, across the globe.