Irish Boxing Awards 2010

The Irish Awards took place on Saturday 23rd January in Belfast and event organiser Cormac Campbell lists the winners, in another great year for national boxing in Ireland:

 

Bernard Dunne was named Boxer of the Year on Saturday night at the Bogart Menswear National Boxing Awards in An Culturlann, Belfast. (Pictured left to right: Martin Rogan, Eddie Hyland, Kevin O'Hara, Jamie Conlan, Paul McCloskey, Martin Lindsay, Patrick Hyland, Gary O'Sullivan, Neil Sinclair & Carl Frampton)

 

 

The Dubliner, who claimed the WBA super-bantamweight title from Ricardo Cordoba in March 2009, beat off stiff competition from European champions Matthew Macklin and Paul McCloskey.

 

Dunne was unable to attend due to prior commitments, leaving his coach Harry Hawkins to collect the award.

 

Hawkins (pictured below) recalled the highs of the title win as well as the lows of Dunne’s subsequent defeat against Thai puncher Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym. The Holy Trinity coach also hinted that an announcement on Dunne’s future will be made in the coming weeks.

 

 

22-year-old Belfast native Carl Frampton (3-0) was named Prospect of the Year. The Barry McGuigan managed, Gerry Storey trained box-puncher (pictured below with Bobby Lavery & Cormac Campbell) has already caught the eye of the boxing fraternity and looks set to make a push into title contention in the next 18 months.

 

 

The Irish Champion of the Year award was presented to super-featherweight champion Eddie Hyland (Tallaght) in recognition of recent victories over domestic rivals Kevin O’Hara and Oisin Fagan.

 

Belfast’s John Breen (pictured with Paul McCloskey) was recognised as coach of the year after another successful year in his Lombard Street gym.

 

 

Boxing historian and author Barry Flynn gave a special presentation on the careers of boxing legends John Caldwell and John McNally – inducting the duo into the Hall of Fame.

 

The keynote address of the awards was given by Boxing Union of Ireland President Mel Christle.