Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Tommy’s title tilt’s thwarted
TOMMY MCCARTHY’S bid for the WBA Inter-continental title ended in the second defeat of his career to England’s Richard Riakporhe in Peterborough on Saturday night.
The Belfast cruiserweight, who lost the 2009 and 2010 Irish finals to Olympic finalist Ken Egan, was stopped in the fourth round of the scheduled 10-rounder at the East of England Arena.
Mccarthy, 28, looked comfortable up to the point of the stoppage but it all began to unravel after he was wobbled by a big right from the Londoner.
Riakporhe, seeing his opponent in trouble, found the target with two more big shots with Mccarthy visiting the canvas before another flurry of punches saw referee Mike Alexander call a halt.
Mccarthy drops to 13 wins from 15 outings after the reversal while unbeaten Riakporhe improves to nine wins.
“A lot of people think I’ve just got power and I don’t have a boxing brain. Tommy called me a novice in the build-up and I took that personal, I wanted to show him I could box,” said Riakporhe.
Meanwhile, Dubliner Jay Byrne retained his Celtic super-welter belt on a majority decision over Scotland’s Stefan Sanderson on Saturday.
The fight was scored 98-93, 96-94 for Byrne over the Paisley southpaw with one judge seeing a 95-95 draw after 10 rounds in Turnberry. JOSH GRIFFIN spearheaded Lee Radford’s half-time reshuffle to make it backto-back wins for Hull FC.
Centre Griffin (above) was switched to full-back when Jake Connor was forced off with a knee injury, and finished with two tries as the visitors overcame an interval deficit.
Radford said: “We came out in another gear and changed the mindset of how we were playing.
“Griff is not a ball-playing full-back, and we wanted to play a bit more direct and straighten up. He did exactly what we asked for – he’s not going to find a pass, but he’ll go through you.”
Radford’s side trailed 8-6