BELFAST – Matthew Boreland scored an excellent sixth-round victory over Ruadhan Farrell to claim the Irish title in a war at junior featherweight.
Boreland made a fast start but Farrell went with him. Although Boreland landed some right hands, Farrell replied with a left hook-right hand that steadied his opponent with arout 30 seconds left in round one.
Boreland, trained by the former unified champion Ryan Burnett, clumped Farrell with a couple of impressive rights in the second and looked to be the heavier-handed fighter.
Farrell, from Belfast, landed occasional bursts, but Boreland was content to march through whatever came his way.
Coleraine's Boreland, 6-0 (2 KOs), was guilty of head-hunting. The taller Farrell offered a target around the middle, but he was slicker in the fourth when jabbing more, and he was then cracked by both a right hand and left hook that drew gasps from the crowd. Boreland, however, was slowing. He bled from the nose in the fifth and was guilty of loading up in his bid to turn the tide back in his favor. Early in the sixth, however, Boreland landed a left hook that sent Farrell sprawling for a count.
Farrell fought back hard, rallying with both hands in an exciting session, but just before the bell Farrell, 7-2-1 (5 KOs), was nailed by a right hand, wobbled, caught by a left, and wobbled some more before the round ended.
Farrell groggily stumbled back to his corner, but it looked unlikely that the bout was going the distance.
To that end, Farrell’s corner withdrew him before the start of the next and Boreland celebrated, held aloft on Burnett’s shoulders as the new Irish junior-featherweight champion.
Caine Singh scored an upset by scalping the previously-unbeaten junior featherweight Donagh Keary over four rounds.
Northern Ireland’s Keary had success early when landing with his left to the body and a right uppercut but Singh came into it more as the first progressed and he started the second with similar intent. By the fourth Singh really fancied it and was attacking with both hands, and Keary could do little more than cover on the ropes. The action was two-way until the bell, and in the end it was the Middlesbrough underdog, 3-7, who won by 39-37. Keary is 3-1.
The middleweight prospect Aaron Bowen improved to 7-0 (5 KOs) with a second-round victory over Argentina's Carlos Miguel Ronner, who falls to 7-6 (2 KOs).
The Argentine started with some ambition but, after being caught by a right hand in the first, he was on the back foot and Bowen was well on top by the end of the opening round.
Ronner was persistent in his efforts to land the left hook but he dropped to his knee after a left to the body in the second and, after the visitor made it back to his feet, Bowen fired in a right hand and Ronner hit the deck for a second and final time. It was waved off at 2:35 of round two.
“When I step up in class, I think I will really shine,” said Bowen, who brought 100 fans from Coventry, England.
“He’s one of the most-exciting fighters out there,” said his promoter Eddie Hearn.
Their fight had been scheduled for eight rounds.
The junior-middleweight debutant Kyle Smith started smoothly behind his left hand against Connor Meanwell by jabbing and hooking to the head and body.
Smith’s hand speed was problematic for the journeyman, but after firing a combination in, Meanwell implored him to punch harder and urged him to attack.
Smith landed some flashy shots, and Meanwell’s face began to redden. Meanwell was never deterred and kept coming, but he did not win a round and lost 40-36.
The middleweight debutant Jim Donovan, the cousin of main-event fighter Paddy Donovan, eased to victory against Lukasz Barbasz, 4-18 (2 KOs), in first fight of the evening at Windsor Park.
Barbasz touched down in the third, and Donovan – trained and cornered by Andy Lee – led the way throughout by landing frequent right hooks from his southpaw stance. In the last Donovan lashed his opponent with straight lefts and more right hooks but the visitor, tiring rapidly, lasted the course.
Donovan won by 39 points to 36.
