© Allan Donnellan / Saddo Boxing

In 1991, Dublin’s National Boxing Stadium hosted it’s first professional show, in which the legendary Steve Collins defeated Danny Morgan in three rounds. The Stadium has enjoyed an illustrious run since that December; fighters such as Jim Rock, the Hyland brothers, Bernard Dunne and recently, John Duddy, have all become Irish heroes through the exposure they have received applying their craft in the country’s premier boxing venue.

In Matthew Macklin, the stadium may well have found a new darling.

The timing of this card was perhaps unfortunate in that it coincided with Ireland’s Easter Holiday weekend. This fact ensured that the crowd never threatened to fill the National Stadium. However, promoter Brian Peters should have been pleased with the night, as the undersized, but warm, vocal crowd cheered the native fighters home in what was an supremely successful night for the Irish. More…

Popular middleweight Matthew Macklin took on the still dangerous former IBF Light Middleweight Champion Yory Boy Campas last night on a Brian Peters promotion at National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland and the 25 year old Birmingham man walked away with a well deserved unanimous decision after ten solid rounds of action.

Campas started the bout as he would finish it; surging forward. The 36 year old warhorse came at Macklin all night long and to his credit, the younger man largely avoided the kind of slugfest that Campas was looking for.

Macklin managed to box Campas and control the pace of the bout with the jab and stinging counters to both the head and body. Macklin shook Campas several times but never managed to truly hurt the former world champion, who for his part caught the local favorite with good overhand rights on occasion. More…