REFEREE Hugh Russell jnr had to hang on to Paddy Barnes’ arm to protect him from serious injury on Saturday night.
Olympic Games star Barnes was in the fifth of five one-sided and increasingly scrappy rounds against Stefan Slavchev when the Bulgarian picked him up and hoisted him over his shoulder. As the crowd booed the disgraceful act that has no place in boxing, Barnes teetered on his shoulder and it wasn’t clear whether Slavchev intended to throw him onto the canvas.
Regardless of his intentions, Barnes could easily have fallen and suffered a serious injury. He said himself: “He could have paralysed me if he’d have thrown me to the ground”.
Referee Russell’s quick thinking prevented that and he immediately waved the fight off giving Barnes a welcome, if unsatisfactory, first professional win: “I came here to fight,” said Barnes, who had a vocal support at the atmospheric Titanic Exhibition Centre.
“Obviously, everyone knows that journeymen come to survive but I couldn’t even pin him down or make a fight out of it or impress the fans, who were great, because he was running away so much.
“It was a frustrating fight. In amateur boxing people come to win even if they’re crap. He was crap and he ran away - it’s so frustrating. That’s the business and I know it. If I had slowed down a bit I might have caught up with him, but trying to land anything clean was just… It was desperate.”
Barnes’ preparations for his professional debut were sidelined by concerns over his pregnant partner Mari who has been in hospital for the past eight weeks and remains there after the birth of the couples’ second daughter Fianna.
“I sold a lot of tickets,” said the north Belfast man who will now base his training in Scotland with Danny Vaughan who will also look after Jamie Conlan.
“You can’t just pull out of a big fight, I trying to build a fanbase and bring big-time boxing back to Belfast and if I had pulled out nobody would have came to any more of my fights. Even though I’m disappointed because I wasn’t able to show the fans my true potential, I’m glad I got in there and made my debut.”
Barnes had been wrestled onto the floor twice before the stoppage and said “he couldn’t believe” Slavchev’s roughhouse tactics. Despite the ordeal he feels that professional boxing will suit him better than the amateur game.
“Pro boxing will suit me better,” he said.
“I can’t believe how slow the pace is - you actually can’t go out of breath. But I’m more focussed on getting my fiancé home and the child and when they’re home I can focus on boxing next year and on titles.
“They’re on the mend but even if I’d have got beat tonight I wouldn’t have used that as an excuse because wants that bell goes in the ring I think about nothing else in this world only my opponent.”
The 'Wee Man’ was given an enthusiastic reception, with chants of ‘Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole’ echoing around the aren as he made his way to the ring. With veteran Holy Family coach Gerry Storey in his corner and close friend Carl Frampton cheering him on from ringside, the double Olympic medallist dived straight into the action and went looking to land big shots from the first bell.
He had only limited success but was more fluent in the second, stalking Slavchev around the ring and hammering him with both hands when he pinned him in a corner. Understandably given the occasion, his work was a little wild at times and the fight was scrappy as he pushed for a knockout.
Slavchev tied the local favourite up at every opportunity and the pair of them fell in a heap in the centre of the ring as the third round came to a close. Barnes became increasingly frustrated in the fourth as Slavchev showed no real interest in boxing and the fight ended when Slavchev picked him up and walked, with him over his shoulder in a fireman’s lift, across the ring. Referee Russell rightly disqualified him and so Barnes had the first win of a professional career that can only go up from here.
A few hours later, his former Olympic rival, China’s Zou Shiming, won the WBO flyweight title in Las Vegas. The double gold medallist out-pointed Prasitsak Phaprom to take the title in his 10th fight.
Barnes wants to meet him and though - at this stage - they are worlds apart, Saturday night was the first step towards closing the distance and getting a crack at his title.
Picture by Pacemaker Jamie Conlan in action against David Koos
Picture by Pacemaker
JAMIE CONLAN had little bother out-pointing David Koos at the Titanic Exhibition Centre on Saturday night but he was still critical of his performance.
‘The Mexican’, a veteran of a succession of wars in his 17-fight career, changed the pace for this one and stuck to his boxing against out-of-his-depth Koos who battled gamely to the finish. He did so relatively comfortably over the first four rounds, but Conlan turned up the heat in the fourth, landing chopping right hands as Koos tried to back-pedal out of range.
Conlan remained disciplined and in total control to the finish and now moves to 18-0 with high hopes for a shot at the world super-flyweight title next year: “I’m very critical of certain wee things that I feel I should have been doing - things that I didn’t do or was doing wrong,” he said.
“I stuck to the gameplan and my corner told me ‘stick to your boxing, break him down’ but I have a lot of learning to do and hopefully I can take it into my next fight. I felt tonight that my pace was set for a 12-round fight, not for an eight-round fight. There was times I had him and I didn’t step on the gas because I was conserving the energy for the next round and the next round. When eight was done I said myself ‘I’ve four more in the bank here’ and that’s all part of the learning game.”
Conlan has been knocking on the door for a serious world title challenge for a couple of years now and hopes to start the final push with an eliminator next year. He’ll be back in action in Belfast in the spring.
“Frank Warren is saying a WBO final eliminator is done but it’s when it’s done is the thing,” he said.
“Myself and Paddy [Barnes] will be back here in late February-early March. The reception we got here and the way things were done here tonight - I think they should be coming here every time.
“I want all my fights here. Look at this crowd - we’ve been getting stopped in the street and it’s like big-time boxing is back and there wasn’t a big title fight on the card. They announced the show with me and Paddy and look how well it has done. What’s going to happen when they announce a show with me or Paddy for a title?
“The success of this bill shows that they [the TV cameras] have to come back.”
Picture by Pacemaker Tyrone McKenna celebrates his win over Sean Creagh
Picture by Pacemaker
TYRONE McKENNA hopes to set up a Belfast-Dublin derby showdown with Phil Sutcliffe jnr after he won the vacant Boxing Union of Ireland Celtic Super-Lightweight Championship with a commanding win over Sean Creagh on Saturday night.
Insults, instigated by Creagh, had been traded in the build-up but when it came to the fight the Dubliner had no answer to McKenna’s height and reach, slick movement and fast hands and he was on the receiving end of steady stream of left uppercuts as he tried to bulldoze his way forward.
Creagh went in with a 4-0 record and he carried the fight to McKenna early on but was picked him off continuously off the back foot. A straight right stopped Creagh in his tracks and ‘Mighty Celt’ McKenna hammered home a right hook and landed a series of meaty uppercuts before the bell ended a one-sided opener.
Creagh was game but he was a sitting duck for the stylish McKenna in the second and by bell he was bleeding from the nose and taking a lot of punishment. Creagh landed an overhand left in the third but again McKenna picked his shots well and a left hook sent him into the ropes. After a one-sided fourth the fight was waved off in the fifth and now McKenna can look ahead to a possible all-Irish battle with Sutcliffe who beat Chris Jenkins on Saturday night.
Referee Hugh Russell jnr had Sutcliffe a 98-93 points winner over 10 rounds although you could argue it was closer than that after the Welshman recovered impressively from being floored in the first from a left hook.
“We’ll see what happens,” said Sutcliffe afterwards when asked if fighting McKenna was a possibility.
“If he wants it, of course it’s possible, but we’ll see.”
McKenna showcased his skills and was pleased with his performance, saying: “He started the grudge match, he did a lot of disrespecting and he got beat up for it: “I was relaxed, I knew I had more talent than him and I knew if I stuck to the gameplan it was going to be a comfortable night.
"I hurt him a lot with the uppercuts and the right hooks - he’s a tough child and he wouldn’t go down, so fair play to him.”
STEVEN WARD got his professional career off to an impressive start with a shut-out points win against Merdjidin Yuseinov on Saturday night.
Debutant Ward was controlled and patient against the outclassed Yuseinov who was predictably negative throughout. He boxed for the first two rounds before unloading some powerful shots and Yuseinov weathered a late assault and came close to being stopped after the stylish Ward caught him clean with a right hook.
“I felt good,” said Ward.
“If it had have gone another 30 seconds I might have got the stoppage but overall I was happy with my performance. I wasn’t looking for a knockout – if it came, it came – so I was happy enough.
“The atmosphere was electric, all the Newtownabbey crowd was up and the Belfast ones – north, east, south and west – they all got behind me. I don’t have a hair on my head, but if I had any they would be standing up. It felt brilliant and if I can do it there I honestly feel I can perform anywhere.”
MARC McCULLOUGH took a step into the unknown and came out with the WBO Intercontinental Featherweight Championship with an assured win on Saturday night.
The Shankill Road fighter had Luis Lugo down in the second round before the Mexican retired after the fourth and says he has “found the love” for boxing after reaching a crossroads in his career.
“I went into the fight not knowing anything about him - I hadn’t seen a clip, I didn’t know what to expect,” said ‘Marco’.
“I’ve been training hard to go back to the boxing. I picked the sharpness up and the brain is starting to work again and everything we’ve been practising in the gym worked. After Isaac Lowe I didn’t know what to do. I had gone stale and that’s why I had to change things round. I’m with Charlie Toland now on the Ormeau Road and it’s not even that he’s better, it’s just a change and I’m starting to enjoy it again, I’ve found the love for it.”
He wants a rematch with Lowe, who stopped him on the undercard of Frampton-Quigg in Manchester: “I would take it,” he said.
“I just didn’t turn up on the night. I was dead on my feet and I couldn’t move. I was only 20 per cent and I still got a couple of good rounds, so if I’m 100 per cent it should be no problem for me.”
RESULTS
Vacant WBO Intercontinental Featherweight Championship: Marco McCullough bt Luis Lugo Ret’d 4; Super-Flyweight: Jamie Conlan beat David Koos pts (80-72); Flyweight: Paddy Barnes beat Stefan Slavchev - Slavchev disq R5; Super-Lightweight: Phillip Sutcliffe Jnr bt Chris Jenkins pts (98-93); Vacant Boxing Union Of Ireland Celtic Super-Lightweight Championship: Tyrone McKenna bt Sean Creagh TKO5; Light-Heavyweight: Steven Ward bt Merdjidin Yuseinov pts (40-36); Heavyweight: Con Sheehan bt Kamil Sokolowski on pts (79-74); Lightweight: Stephen Ormond bt Daniel Bazo ret’d R3; Super-Featherweight: Declan Geraghty bt Khvicha Gigolashvili TKO1 33 seconds; Super-Featherweight: James Tennyson bt Raphael Castillo (40-36); Heavyweight: Sean Turner bt Ivica Percovic on pts (60-54); Cruiserweight: Gary Sweeney bt Jarek Prusak TKO1
