BOXING/SUPER BANTAMWEIGHT:IN MADISON Square Garden last weekend it was possible for a few moments to believe the centre of Irish boxing lay in New York, not Dublin. Ringside for the 'Battle of The Super Powers', Joe Calzaghe v Roy Jones junior, was Irish middleweight Andy Lee, and just in front of him Olympic silver medallist Ken Egan, talking to American promoter Lou DiBella.
It was a typical Irish scene in the capital of boxing. But, in reality, the leading edge of the Irish scene remains in Ireland, and tonight in Mayo (9.15pm, RTÉ 2), Bernard Dunne will hope to ask questions of the non-boxing public, ask why they have cut him loose so readily after one poor performance against Kiko Martinez.
Those were the days. A packed Point Depot and a virtually unknown Spaniard arrives to crush Dunne's dream with a first-round knockout. A world title shot that was assured evaporated.
It will always be Dunne's regret that he got caught cold, and, while others question the quality of his chin, the 28-year-old has quietly reconstructed his career. Now he remains the Irish fighter likely to get the first crack at a world strap, as his promoter and manager, Brian Peters, believes a win against 25-year-old Uruguayan Cristian Faccio in Breaffy House will cough up the title shot he craves.
Peters is a pragmatist not given to flights of fancy, but he talks about a title fight early next year if his man can come through the test posed by the South American.
Faccio is a noted puncher with 11 of his 16 wins coming inside the distance and seven inside two rounds. He is fresh off a first-round KO late last month, his first fight since losing out in a bid for Hozumi Hasegawa's WBC bantamweight title in Japan earlier this year. No disgrace there, and no doubt now that Dunne will have to be careful.
"We've seen a couple of his fights and he's very aggressive and can clearly bang," Peters says, "but he can also be vulnerable himself, so it should make for an exciting fight."
Excitement from Dunne is the last thing Peters needs. Faccio is the WBC Latino bantamweight champion and ranked 11 in the world, while Dunne is ranked 24 at super bantamweight by the same organisation. The fight will be at super bantamweight over 10 rounds.
"We've been working on developing explosive power, while also improving my overall strength, because that's very important if you want to compete at world level," said Dunne.
"I've still been working as hard as ever in the gym on my technique with Harry Hawkins, but we felt it was important to introduce the strength and conditioning aspect as well and hopefully I'll show all the benefits of that work.
"All the talk about world title fights will mean nothing if I slip up on Saturday night and this guy has to be respected," said a wiser, more cautious Dunne. "He's only just fought for the world title himself and is world rated, he's mixed in some good company and there's no doubt he can bang as well. His record proves that."
The attitude seems more measured since Martinez spun his world around.
Maybe that did him a favour.
