Irish Fight Night; Dunne vs. Machado. April 12th

Brian Peters promotions pitts The "Irish Rover" Bernard Dunne against Venezuela's former world super flyweight champion Felix Macahdo a top a stacked card this Saturday night.

The Southpaw Machado, has been active at bantamweight recently, although admittedly not all that succesfully. His last two fights have been ten round unanimous decision losses for the Venezuelan bantamweight title. In this impending bout, he takes another step upward challenging Bernard Dunne at Super Bantamweight. Machado at 5'7'' was an exceptionally tall fighter at super flyweight. This frame has allowed hiom to make the transition to bantamweight and forge a record of 25-7-1, in which he has generated 12 stoppages. With wins over the formidable Martin Castillo and Julio Gamboa earlier in his career, Machado will offer Dunne a stern test, although at 35 one has to ponder the effect of his 33 fights on his abilitry to perform.

At 28 years of age Bernard Dunne seemed to be entering his prime, until he was cut down by the furious reaper Kiko Martinez. The devastating knockout loss robbed Dunne of his unbeaten record which had been forged against decent opposition including domestic names such as Noel Wilders, Esham Pickering and Sean Hughes. Holding a record of 24-1-0 Dunne is the jewel of Brian Peters promotions and will desperately be seeking redemption. A fighter with slick skills, good countering abilities and unusually for a conventional fighter a big left hand. Equaling Machado in height Bernard will attempt to utilise his famed bodywork to exploit the naturally smaller Machado in a bid to regain past-glory.

It will be interesting to see whether Dunne has retained the popularity he once held. In the past he instantly sold out arenas including Irelands national stadium and the point depot. With a likeable presonality and some good in ring skills, the result of this fight will be aegerly anticpated by all of the Irish media.

In addition, Micky Ward has supposedly been employed by Dunne as a new trainer, although the lack of presence in the media casts a shadow on this rumour. With Dunne's chin being "exposed by Martinez and wobbled by both Walstad and Voronin in the past, one has to wonder as to the wisdom behind this move.