Irish Boxing: Dunne KO’d In First Round In Dublin!

In front of an adoring crowd at packed Dublin venue, The Point, local hero Bernard Dunne was shockingly crushed in less than a single round during a European title defense by heavy fisted Spaniard Kiko Martinez.

It was a classic but brief boxer vs. puncher encounter with Dunne looking to establish his jab but Martinez simply bulled his way through it and began to attack the body.

Dunne seemed unaccustomed to the apparent strength of Martinez, who just walked through the Irishman’s vaunted boxing skills and downed Dunne almost immediately.

Dunne was soon down again with a full blooded hook to the top of the head and was very shaky in beating the count. Martinez moved in fro the kill, flinging leather from both hands with full power and striking gold with a body shot followed by a huge right that had referee Terry O’Connor moving in to stop the fight at 1:26 of the first round.

In his first fight away from Spain, Martinez, 17-0 (14), wins the European title while Dunne suffers his first loss in devastating fashion to drop to 24-1 (14).

On the undercard, a British title defense by light heavyweight champion Tony Oakey against former longtime IBO 168 lb titlist Brian Magee delivered on it’s promise with 12 highly contentious rounds being waged before a majority draw was declared with Oakey keeping his title.

It was the biggest fight of Oakey’s career and the big hearted battler from Portsmouth, England wasted no time in pursuing his forward marching style.

Belfast’s Magee reacted to Oakey’s pressure with a body attack and the big punching southpaw was landing at a good rate but couldn’t slow the champion down.

Both men suffered cuts in the third as Oakey found success in pushing Magee back behind an educated lead right hand. In the fourth, Oakey switched tactics and launches a body attack, but Magee took advantage of Oakey’s open guard and landed well to the Englishman’s head.

Oakey resumed control in the fifth, although the South Coast man was rattled by a Magee left hand, and the sixth was a dogfight with neither man pulling clear.

Magee stepped it up in the seventh and attacked Oakey’s body with much success but the champion was still banging the Ulsterman with right hands, both upstairs and down.

The eighth and ninth rounds saw the contest turn into trench warfare as both men tired and became less mobile with Oakey suffering another cut in the ninth.

Magee was more active in the last three rounds but there was much clenching as well as holding and hitting on the inside as the hard fought bout came to a close.

When the scores were read, Oakey retained his British Light Heavyweight belt on a majority draw with Magee winning one card 116-113 and the other two coming in at 114-114.

Oakey moves to 26-2-1 (6) and could be headed for a European title bid against Germany’s Thomas Ulrich.

Magee drops to 28-3-1 (19) and may be running out of big fight options but a clash with Commonwealth champion Dean Francis could be on the horizon.

The rest of the bill saw popular Birmingham middleweight Matthew Macklin, 19-2 (15), gun down Leeds based journeyman Darren Rhodes, 21-13-3 (7), in the fifth, towering Irish middleweight Andy Lee, 11-0 (8), stopped Belfast’s Ciaran Healy, 6-6-1 (1), with body shots in the fourth, Derry southpaw light welter Paul McCloskey, 12-0 (5), outpointed Italy’s Alfredo Di Feto, 12-4-1 (5), over eight rounds, flashy Sheffield light welter Nicky Smedley, 10-0 (3), decisioned Polish journeyman Dariusz Snarski, 19-26-2 (4), over four rounds and Ballymena welter novice Willie Thompson, 2-0 (0), outpointed Latvia’s Artur Jashkul, 2-11-3 (0), over four.