Weekend Round-Up: Katie Taylor dominates and Clancy closes in on Irish title fight
The last busy weekend of the year took place over the weekend, and there was plenty of Irish action across the globe.
The fighting started with Oughterard’s Gearoid Clancy [7(2)-4(0)] on Friday morning. The Sydney-based lightweight stopped Thai fighter Akrapong Nakthaem in the fifth of six scheduled rounds at the Horden Pavilion. An important fight for the Galwegian, it is believed that this win will result in him being authorised by the Boxing Union of Ireland to fight Paul Hyland Jr for the Irish title in Belfast in February.
On Saturday at the Liquid & Envy Nightclub in Portsmouth there is title loss for Miles Shinkwin [13(7)-2(1)]. The London-Cork light heavv was edged out by home favourite Joel McIntyre for the vacant BBBoC English title. A repeat of their BBBoC Southern Area scrap in 2014, won by Shinkwin, a rubber match now looks on the cards.
On the undercard in the south of England, Pompey-Belfast welter Michael McKinson [10(1)-0] strolled to a 60:53 win over journeyman Duane Green [4(0)-21(1)-4]. Congratulations are also in order for ‘The Problem’ on the birth of his first child yesterday evening. Not a bad weekend.
Belfast middle Alfredo Meli [12(3)-0-1] returned from over a year out with a rust-shaker of a win on the MGM Birmingham ‘Jingle Brawls’ card at the Tudor Grange Leisure Centre in Solihull. Here the Immaculata man outpointed (60:55) Anthony Fox.
There was Irish interest on the big Anthony Joshua v Eric Molina pay-per-view at the Manchester Arena with Bray super featherweight Katie Taylor [2(1)-0] featuring prominently. The Wicklow woman took a big step up to face Brazilian-Swiss lightweight Viviane Obenauf, and scored a dominant 60:53 points win.
In one of the best heavyweight fights of recent memory Cork-Jamaican Dillian Whyte [20(15)-1] edged Zimbabwean Dereck Chisora in an epic grudge match. After a back-and-forth contest, in which Whyte landed the more numerous shots but Chisora landed the heavier blows, ‘The Body Snatcher’ was given the nod on a razor-close split-decision (115:114, 115:113, 114:115).
Former Celtic Warriors Gym man Frank Buglioni [19(15)-2(1)] was also involved in a Fight of the Year contender. Behind on the cards, the Londoner scored a dramatic final round knockout of British champion Hosea Burton to claim the Lonsdale belt.
Finally in America, on the big Terence Crawford v John Molina Jr card in Omaha, there was an undercard appearance for Navan-New York light heavy Seanie Monaghan [28(17)-0]. The world title-chasing Long Islander outpointed (96:94, 97:93, 98:92) Fernando Castaneda [24(15)-11(6)] at the CenturyLink Center.
