BOXING:FOR THE second time in as many fights, Bernard Dunne didn't lose a round. Before a raucous and supportive crowd at the National Stadium on Saturday night, the 28-year-old super-bantamweight from Neilstown posted a 100-90 whitewash of Argentina's Damien David Marchiano.
The latest outing, conducted against an opponent who was stylistically tailor-made for Dunne, did not represent a particularly meaningful career move, but as a redemptive exercise it fulfilled its purpose.
"If he'd bothered to watch tapes of my fights he'd have realised that I'm a boxer, not a brawler," said Dunne. "The only problem I had was disciplining myself and not trying to play to the crowd by mixing it up with him."
Dunne's mode was further tempered by a damaged left hand, an injury sustained when he banged it off Marchiano's head in the third round.
Although Dunne took a tumble to the canvas in the second, it was immediately ruled a slip by referee Emile Tiedt, and apart from a left hook that appeared to shake the Argentinian in the sixth, neither combatant was hurt.
Although Dunne voiced hope of regaining his former championship, promoter Brian Peters conceded that a fight for the EBU title "could take ages".
Martinez lost the European 122lb title to England's Rendall Munroe in his first defence this past March. Munroe is promoted by Frank Maloney, who is securely aligned with Sky Television in Britain. Sky is no more keen to allow Munroe venture to Ireland than Peters is to send Dunne off to England to fight for a fraction of what he can make at home.
At the same time, not even Dunne's army of loyal supporters are going to sit still for a steady diet of Damien Marchianos. Now 15-5-1, the Argentinian's loss at the Stadium was his third in four fights, and, said Peters, "we're going to have to step it up a wee bit" when Dunne fights next in Ireland, probably late this autumn.
Dublin's Jim Rock won his fourth national title with a seventh-round knockout of Jonjo Finnegan in their bout for the vacant All-Ireland light-heavyweight title.
While the 36-year-old Rock did not, as has sometimes been his wont, suggest that the bout might have been a farewell to boxing, having made history he did confirm that his first fight at light heavyweight had also been his last.
"I'm a middleweight," said Rock.
Rock was joined in the record book by Andrew Murray, who at 22 became just the third boxer in history to win Irish titles in more than one weight class when he easily outpointed Peter McDonagh to lift the All-Ireland lightweight title.
The Cavan boxer already owned the 10st light-welterweight belt, and now has 10 days to decide which he wants to keep.
Murray revealed his intent to relinquish the 140lb title, and will probably defend the lightweight version later this year against Portmarnock's Oisín Fagan, who handily defeated Latvian Konstantin Sakara in their undercard bout on Saturday.
Rock, who had won titles at light-middle, middleweight and super-middleweight, has won at an unprecedented four weights.
Besides Murray, the only other multiple All-Ireland champion was Peter Maher, who defeated John Seenan to become Irish middleweight champion in 1888, and two years later outpointed Harvey de Cross to win the Irish heavyweight title.
