Irish Fighters Shine At Titanic Homecoming Event
Homecoming, Queensbury Promotions, 5th November 2016
Titanic Exhibition Centre, Belfast, Northern Ireland
Frank Warrens Queensbury promotions put on a Boxnation TV event at short notice in the quaint and compacted Titanic Exhibition Centre in Belfast, the event was a great success as every Irish fighter on the card won and the venue which holds a 3000 capacity was sold out. The first fight of the night played out in front of a handful of spectators but blink and you would have missed it, in the Cruiserweight fight Gary ‘The Gallant’ Sweeny (2 (2KO’s)-0-0) made light work of Jarek Prusak (8 (8 KO’s)-1-0), knocking the Polish fighter down three times in quick succession in the first round and giving the referee no other choice but to wave the contest off. I am sure ‘The Gallant’ Irishman was expecting a tougher test going by Prusak’s current record, but he now moves onto three wins with all three coming by way of knockout.
Next into the ring for the first of two heavyweight bouts was Irish Prospect Sean ‘Big Sexy’ Turner (8 (6 KO’s)-0-0) and he was up against a man mountain in the name of Ivica Perkovic (22 (17 KO’s)-31-0). The Journeyman made it awkward for Turner as he used his height, reach and weight to stifle his early work, Turner took a few rounds to find his range but as he was the aggressor he was winning the rounds. The big Croatian Perkovic was tiring as the rounds were passing so ‘Big Sexy’ decided to switch his tactics and started working the body more, he was still comfortably winning the rounds and in the 6th and final round both fighters upped the pace to try and get a knockout, in the end Turner won out comfortably on points with a 60 to 54 score which was scored by the Referee.
Belfast Lad James Tennyson ‘The Assassin’ (17 (13KO’s)-2-0) was up next against the last minute replacement Rafael Castillo (14 (6 KO’s)-27-3 and what a fight this was, the only disappointing thing about the fight was the fact the Super-Featherweight contest only lasted 4 rounds. Both fighters were letting their hands go from the first bell, with Tennyson doing the cleaner work and throwing the harder punches. The Assassin’s shot selection was varied and catching the Nicaraguan at will at times, but Castillo has a lot of heart and decided to stand right in front of Tennyson with both fighters going toe to toe. Going into the last round, both fighters’ faces were marked up as they flew out from their corner looking for a KO, Tennyson opting to fight on the inside but he sustained a cut on the corner of his eye and this wasn’t enough for Castillo to take the victory. Tennyson got the nod from the Referee by winning 40 to 36.
The quickest fight of the night was up next when Declan ‘Pretty Boy’ Geraghty (13 (3 KO’s)-1-0) came flying out of his corner with a bit of posturing then knocking down Khvicha Gigolashvili 14 (3 KO’s)-15-0 with a vicious body punch after 33 seconds, the Georgian failed to beat the count of ten which pleased the large travelling fans that made the 2 hour journey up from Dublin to Belfast. ‘Pretty Boy’ is now eyeing up a fight with his Super-Featherweight rival from the previous fight James Tennyson.
Dublin’s Stephen Ormond ‘The Rock’ (21 (11 KO’s)-3-0) was next into the ring, and he was going up against Daniel Bazo (3 (2 KO’s)-10-3) from the Czech Republic. The Lightweight fight started very cagy with Bazo constantly moving around the ring and Ormond stalking him. In Round 2 the fight was going the same way as the first until Bazo slipped on some water in his corner and then he appeared to hold his groin after he got up, from this point on the fight dynamics changed completely. Everywhere Bazo went in the ring Ormond was right in front of him, and it didn’t take long for Ormond to find his range as he started to catch Bazo with some heavy shots. There were signs that the shots were having an effect on Bazo as he began to breathe heavily and he was not as mobile as in the previous rounds, Ormond then started to unleash some combinations while Bazo was lunging desperately to try and make something of the fight. At the end of the 3rd round Bazo’s corner decided to pull their fighter out as he had an injury to his shoulder.
Team Fury’s Heavyweight prospect Con Sheehan ‘Irish’ (3 (1 KO)-0-0) was making his first appearance in Belfast against Polish fighter Kamil Sokolowski 2-7-1. Team Fury has high hopes for Con Sheehan and it did look like he might have been facing a tougher opponent in ‘White Rhino’ aka Dave Allen who is just off the back of a defeat to Dillian Whyte, but money issues stopped that from actually happening and instead he faced Sokolowski. Sokolowski came into the fight last minute and was very defensive from the start and Sheehan was obviously not scared of the Poles power because for the whole fight he had his hands very low and was regularly letting his hands go without fear of getting caught himself. ‘Irish’ was winning the rounds comfortably enough so in the final 8th Round, Sokolowski decided to drop his high guard and come out swinging, the fight then got a bit scrappy and petered out with Con Sheehan winning by 79 to 74 from the Referee.
On the card there were two fighters making their Pro debut, first up was Belfast’s Light Heavyweight Steven Ward 0-0-0 and he certainly brought a large crowd with him as he got the loudest cheer off the night from the six fights we had just seen, when he was introduced against Merdjidin Yuseinov ‘The Artist’ (7 (2 KO’s)–16-2). In what seemed like a terrible mismatch at the start, Ward who is trained by Oliver Harrison found it hard to get into his rhythm for the four round fight, this might have been down to nerves or the atmosphere he was getting from his fans. Yuseinov was hugging the ropes and lunging in with an overhand right but he never landed one of them the whole fight, Ward was eager to please his large support and at times he was rushed in his approach, Oliver Harrison on numerous occasions told him to calm down from the corner. Ward did eventually find his range and rhythm and he was able to unleash some combinations, catching the Bulgarian as he stayed within touching distance of the ropes. In the end Ward won easily enough with a score by the Referee of 40 to 36
One of the fights of the night was up next in the form of Belfast’s very own Super Lightweight prospect Tyrone McKenna (11 (3 KO’s)-0-1) and he was fighting Dublin’s Sean Creagh ‘Creaghsy’ (4 (2KO’s)-0-0), and this one started before they entered the ring as there was a bit of aggro at the press conference on the Friday weigh in. From the first bell it was evident that McKenna was a level or two above Creagh, he has very quick hands and was comfortable fighting on the front or back foot. Creagh tried everything from fighting dirty to trying to fight on the inside, due to the height and reach difference, it didn’t matter what he tried to do as McKenna had an answer for everything. The first couple of rounds were fought at a high pace but by the end of the second Creagh was left with a bloody nose and slowly running out of ideas. McKenna’s weapon of choice was the uppercut which he used to devastating effect every time Creaghsy tried to lunge in and make something happen, as he walked straight onto it. In the 5th round Creagh started breathing heavy and he was really starting to feel every punch McKenna successfully landed on him, so much so that his corner retired him at the end of the 5th Round. McKenna won the Ireland Celtic Super Lightweight Belt with this victory over Sean Creagh.
After the fight I got to speak with Tyrone McKenna about his victory: “He started the grudge match, he done a lot of disrespecting and he got beat up for it, I was relaxed and I knew if I stuck to the game plan it would be a comfortable night. I hurt him a lot with uppercuts and right hooks, he has a tough head and a tough chin, fair play to him for not going down. There is some stuff I need to work on but I happy with the performance. I am not scared of any fighter from the UK or Ireland scene, there is great fights out there for me, I would be interested in fighting the winner of the next fight, Sutcliffe Jnr V Jenkins, and it would be a hard fight but why not.”
The fight of the night was between Phillip Sutcliffe Jnr (11 (7 KO’s)-1-0) from Dublin and he was up against the Welshman Chris Jenkins ‘Rok’N’Rolla’ (16 (8KO’s)-1-1), Jenkins hasn’t fought since November 2015 and that was for a vacant British Super Lightweight Title. This fight started at a very fast pace, Sutcliffe finding the early success by landing a couple of big shots, one of the shots was a left hook which sent Jenkins to the floor. Sutcliffe then decides to up the pressure and let his hands go but Jenkins was staying with him and throwing punches back and eventually hurts Sutcliffe with a body shot. Sutcliffe dominated the early rounds with Jenkins fighting on the back foot but by the middle rounds Jenkins was coming back into the fight with hurtful body punches and as the rounds goes by Sutcliffe starts to tire considerably and goes on the back foot. Jenkins did control the later rounds but he couldn’t capitalise and Sutcliffe takes the win on points 98 to 93 after 10 rounds, but I personally thought the fight was a lot closer than the Referee’s scorecard suggests.
The Strangest fight of the night had to go to Belfast Paddy Barnes (0-0-0) V Stefan Slavchev (8 (4 KO’s)-24-1), this Featherweight contest had the loudest cheers of the night when Paddy entered the ring for his Pro Debut. Paddy had to stalk Slavchev down from the first bell as he went on his bike circling the ring and making it difficult for Paddy to find his range. Paddy looked a wee bit anxious and when he corners the Bulgarian he tried to unload on him with six to eight punch combinations, but Slavchev escaped each time making it a frustrating first pro fight for the Belfast man. There were a couple of moments when the fighters came together and ended up on the canvas in a heap, which was a bit clumsy from both fighters. The two fighters come together again but Slavchev in his wisdom decides to lift Paddy Barnes into the air, thus giving the referee no choice but to disqualify him.
The main star of the Titanic card was always going to be Jamie Conlan ‘The Mexican’ (17 (11 KO’s)-0-0) as he went up against the Hungarian David Koos (8 (2 KO’s)-2-1), Conlan had one eye on his world title eliminator which should be coming up in 2017, Conlan controlled the fight early on and never looked in danger of losing it. Conlan was making Koos miss and following up with counter punches. Conlan was the main aggressor throughout the fight and worked behind his Jab and kept Koos at a safe distance. Koos just appeared to be a level or two below Conlan as ‘The Mexican’ never really got out off 2nd gear and cruised to a points victory winning 80 to 72 on the Referee’s scorecard.
After the fight I got to speak with Jamie Conlan about his victory: “I stuck to my game plan with Danny (trainer), which was to break him down through the rounds, I have a lot to learn and I will hopefully take it into the next fight. I was used to staying out of trouble and not get dragged in, my pace was set for a 12 round fight and not an 8 round fight, there was times I had him and I didn’t step on the gas, cause I was conserving energy for the next round and the next round and when eight was done I was saying to myself I have four more in the bank here but that is just part of the learning game and something I didn’t realise that would happen but it did. We (Jamie & Paddy Barnes) will be coming back to Belfast late February or early March before going to New York with Michael (Conlan), I would like all my fights in Belfast now. ”
The last fight of the night was the only title fight on the card, for the vacant WBO Intercontinental Featherweight Championship which seen local lad Marco McCullough (15 (9 KO’s)-5-3 face off against Mexican Luis Lugo ‘Cobrita’ (17 (13KO’s)-5-3), It was a cagy opening round with McCullough trying to counter punch and catch Lugo as he came forward. Both fighters came out on the front foot in the second round throwing solid punches which give them both some success. The Mexican caught McCullough with a strong right hand hook with ten seconds left to the round and it really shook up Marco who had to hang on for the bell. McCullough’s head cleared and he regained his focus to then go on and control the 3rd round. Early in the 4th round McCullough caught Lugo with a body punch and the Mexican was in obvious distress as he retreated to the ropes, McCullough pounced on the opportunity and unleashed on him as the round went on McCullough was finding more gaps and unloaded combinations with a four punch combination standing out, Lugo was then forced onto the back foot where another strong body shot was enough to send him to the canvas and there was obvious winching on his face from the pain of the shot. When Lugo went back onto his stool he complained to his corner that there was something wrong with his elbow, so the fight was waived off and McCullough had won the championship belt to the delight of the expecting Belfast Crowd.