BOXING BOX OFFICE
Host of Irish fighters get ready to rumble
THE national holiday weekend will see 22 fighters who are either Irish or Irelandbased in action on seven shows spread over four countries and three continents.
New York’s famed Madison Square Garden will feature Callum Walsh, Feargal McCrory and Joe Ward in the early hours of tomorrow morning.
Cork light-middleweight Walsh, a southpaw (23), puts his nine out of nine record on the line against Dauren Yeleussinov for the vacant WBC Continental Americas title.
A 37-year-old Brooklyn based native of Kazakhstan, Yeleussinov has a record of 11-3 and one draw.
McCrory, a 31-year-old southpaw super-featherweight from Coalisland, switched his base to the Big Apple is 15-0,
His latest opponent is Carlos Carlson, a 33-year-old from Tijuana with 25 wins in 32 fights.
Former amateur star Ward, who rebounded from a disastrous injury-enforced defeat on his paid debut — in this same arena — with ten successive wins, has a scheduled eight rounder against fellow southpaw Derrick Webster (41), who is 29-4 with one draw.
On this side of the Atlantic, Frank Warren has a show at the Resorts World Arena in Birmingham and there is a seven-fight Steven McEleney card at the Leisureland Complex in Salthill, Galway.
Irish interest in the Birmingham card centres on Dublin light-welterweight Pierce O’Leary (24), and his third defence of the WBC International title.
O’Leary is 13-0 record but his opponent, 31-year-old Hovhannes Martirosyan from Belgium, is 16-0 with ten inside the distance wins.
Bouts
Unbeaten Colm Murphy and Thomas O’Toole jointly top the Galway show, and there are bouts over the same eight-round distance for Luke Keeler and undefeated Cork super-middleweight Cathal Crowley.
Irish super-featherweight champion Murphy (24), bids to stretch his record to 11-0 against Tampela Maharusi from Tanzania
Southpaw lightheavyweight O’Toole
(26) fights Maharusi’s compatriot Hussein
Itaba.
Then, still with Saturday, it’s back across the Atlantic for shows in Boston and San Francisco. The first stop is the Freeport Hall in the Boston suburb of Dorchester, where Tralee super-middleweight Kevin Cronin has a six-rounder against Patrick Pierre from Brooklyn.
In San Francisco’s Fox Theatre in Redwood City, Tommy Hyde (24), and Craig McCarthy (36) will go head-to-head for the latter’s Celtic super-middleweight title.
Two-time national elite champion Brandon McCarthy (23), from Kilkenny, will become the latest amateur star to join the professional ranks.
The first action of the weekend actually comes from The Music Hall in Fortitude Valley, a suburb of Brisbane.
Top of the bill is a tenrounder in which locally based Newry native Conor Wallace (27), defends his WBA Oceania light-heavyweight title for the third time against Jack Gipp. The weekend’s action concludes in Castlebar on Sunday night with a six-fight show featuring Thomas Carty, Gary O’Sullivan, Ray Moylette, Daniel O’Sullivan and Craig O’Brien.