TAYLOR AND CONLAN DOMINATE AS IRISH BOXING LIGHTS UP THE WEEKEND
This past weekend has seen notable win’s for the Irish as the Queen of women’s boxing, Katie Taylor claimed the IBF lightweight belt to add to her WBO & WBA crown with a destructive 9th round stoppage of Rose Volante.
The win leaves Taylor 13-0 (6 KO), and just one fight away from becoming undisputed champion with a fight against WBC champion Delfine Persoon being lined up for this summer.
Mick Conlan 11-0 (6 KO ), was the headliner at New York's historic Madison Square Garden, and put in his most impressive performance to date with his shutout win over tough Mexican Ruben Garcia Hernandez, as he continues his march to world title fights in the featherweight division.
There were notable wins in Boston on the Murphy’s Boxing show for Spike O’Sullivan, who scored a seventh round TKO over Khiary Gray in his move down to light-middleweight.
Elsewhere, heavyweight Niall Kennedy claimed a 1st round stoppage win over Michael Marrone and Noely Murphy moved to 13-1-1 as he dropped and outclassed the tough and rugged John Joyce 7-1 (4 ko’s) in an all-Irish welterweight bout.
Limerick’s Lee Reeves continues his progression up the welterweight ranks with an impressive shutout points win to move to 3-0 (2 KO) on the Mick Conlan undercard.
John Joe Nevin (12-0) put in a classy performance on the Carroll v Farmer undercard to maintain his unbeaten record with a clear points win over Colombian Andres Figueroa
There were also high-profile defeats for amateur legend Paddy Barnes, as he lost a split-decision to rugged Texan bantamweight Oscar Mojica. After the fight Barnes announced he would 'probably retire', speaking in the post-fight press conference he said,
"To be honest, I will probably retire now. I don’t think there is any point boxing after a defeat like that"
"The fans were great but at the end of the day I have to take care of my health. If I am going to box like that, then what’s the point boxing anymore?"
Despite defeat, the performance of the weekend goes to Jono ‘King Kong’ Carroll, who dropped a points decision against the classy and ever-improving IBF super-featherweight champion Tevin Farmer in the headline bout in Philadelphia on Friday.
Carroll battled to the end; fighting his heart out despite a horrid 11th round which had him in all kinds of trouble following a right hook which had him on shaky legs. Carroll put in a monumental effort and threw over 100 punches per round. Watching from the side-lines, his opponent's promoter Lou DiBella said:
“I know what kind of fighter I have in Tevin Farmer but this gave a blueprint on what you do when you get a chance to fight for a World Title – you give 110% of what you have.”
“I’ve a lot of fighters that I want to watch his performance to know that if you go in there and do everything that you can do and you do the best that you can, there’s nothing else you can do.”
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