McCloskey targets world titles after stopping Morrison + undercard review

Boxing, brawling and a small dash of showboating were the three key ingredients to Paul McCloskey’s second successful European light-welterweight title defence in Letterkenny on Saturday October 2nd. The Dungiven southpaw (pictured left, all photos ©Russell Pritchard) may have been dragged into a brawl in his last fight but the 31-year-old made use of all his technical advantages this time, systematically dissecting brave Scotsman Barry Morrison in seven increasingly one-sided rounds.

Some questioned Morrison’s credibility as an EBU title challenger but the Motherwell native proved a more than capable, if a little one dimensional, opponent. Hands lows and showing all the elusive moves McCloskey set a precedent from the opening bell, slamming home his right lead and following up with sharp left hands. Morrison potshotted with right handed returns, waiting for his opportunity whilst trying to work Paul’s style out, which many previous opponents have already found to be a futile exercise.

All the class was coming from McCloskey, feinting in and out of range and effectively working the body of the still dangerous Morrison. When Barry missed, which he did often, he was made to miss big, his wild swings flailing into the ring lights as McCloskey’s upper body swayed in and out of touching distance. To underline his dominance in the first third of the fight, Paul planted a chopping right hook in the fifth-round and Morrison, after a couple of seconds trying to respond, sunk to the canvas by delayed reaction. It signalled the beginning of the end as the Derryman, who enjoyed a rousing rendition of Danny Boy before the fight, stepped up the process of breaking his man down.

Morrison’s corner knew the end was near; sending him out for a big round in the sixth the former British light-welterweight title holder threw caution to the wind and began winding up some big punches. Few connected but plenty of return fire caught him on the way in and the desperate, disheartened challenger walked on to McCloskey’s perfectly picked flurries time and again.

Midway through the seventh-round another right hook caught Barry high on the head and he stumbled into the ropes, prompting referee Mark Green to call the fight off. The time was recorded as 1:28 of the round and the unused EBU judges were John Keane, Marcus McDonnell and Phil Edwards.

“Barry was a hard man but I didn’t let him do any damage at all and if you stand in front of him then of course he’ll hit you all night, you don’t let boys hit you,” said McCloskey post-fight.

“To be fair I didn’t feel any real power in his shots, the way I was sparring I was trying to counter his right hand with a left to the body but I never really got any off and he was easier to hit to the head so I focused on that.”

Paul believes he is now hitting the peaks and the preparations are pulling him through difficult moments: “In sparring all I was doing was boxing, no mixing just pure boxing,” he said, “which is what I’m good at. To be honest he never hurt me and if he had done then I would tell you, but he’s physically very strong. I covered up and never felt his shots at all.”

While Paul marches on towards a world title shot it’s back to the drawing board for Morrison who brought an extremely vocal and sizeable following over with him from Scotland, adding to an excellent atmosphere for the main event.

The ten-round chief support bout was expected to be an exciting scrap but proved a fairly frustrating encounter, with Cavan starlet Andy Murray extending his winning run to 22 with a points win over Johnny Nolasco of the Dominican Republic. A former quality amateur, Nolasco had only been bettered by the likes of Jason Litzau, Steve Luevano and Martin Honorio. His ring outings had been infrequent of late but the Phoenix-based fighter had never been stopped in 22 appearances and had removed eight opponents early during an 11-year career.

However, as trainer John Breen recently attested to, EU king Murray (pictured above) is moving on to a different level. The 28-year-old is sitting down on his punches and letting the combinations flow with real spite. He is now hot on the heels of namesake John Murray who recently stopped Andrei Kudriavtsev in Wigan to retain the same European lightweight crown that Andy would love to get a crack at.

The main reason this one failed to ignite rested mostly with Nolasco’s reluctance to engage and a propensity to lean in and tie up whenever Murray worked his way inside. Andy’s probing jab set up much of his best work but the EU champion was fighting in the phone box for long spells and not using his superior skills and the spark he has shown in his last few contests. By the eighth-round Murray’s right hands to the body were causing Nolasco a certain degree of discomfort and the import had stopped circling as effectively. His team, however, seemed happy with a wide points loss, which is what they suffered when Emile Tiedt’s scorecard was read out as 100-91.

Cuban sensation Luis Garcia was given a tasty encounter, on paper at least, with Uruguayan Jorge Rodriguez Oliveira boasting a 20-1 slate, losing only to the experienced Francisco Mora. It will take more than the statistically pleasing Oliveira to halt the express train that super-middleweight Garcia is fast becoming.

Even though Luis was lethargic and seemingly disinterred for long spells of this encounter, he always had too much talent for Oliveira, who slipped to the canvas twice in the first session. Garcia (pictured below) never looked fussed by anything the Uruguayan had to offer, while his cool demeanour and languid style sometimes threatens to spill over into petulance. By the sixth-round a visibly spent Oliveira started shipping a few and ref Emile Tiedt called time on the bout, leaving Garcia to swagger around the ring enjoying his latest victory. Even though his abundant natural ability is not in question, work rate does remain a concern and when his big chance finally arrives Luis could be the sort of character who fails grasp it with both hands.

Another Caribbean mover who is doing well for himself is Garcia’s compatriot Alexei Acosta. The 22-year-old had removed all previous 12 victims early and Uruguay’s Cristian Faccio –five years his senior at 27- was the right sort of opponent to see if Acosta’s power is indeed the real deal. Faccio contested the WBC bantamweight strap in 2008, going down in the second-round to quality Japanese star Hozumi Hasegawa and was a familiar visitor to Irish soil having battled Bernard Dunne in Castlebar, one fight before Dunne achieved world title glory.

Despite his world level experience and ability to mix it with the elite, Faccio was no stranger to meeting the canvas and the good news here is that Acosta’s potential is genuine, adding his name to the list of men who have bettered the Salto native. It was arguably the most impressive showing to date for Acosta who added real spite into his shots, throwing Faccio around on occasions with the velocity, and regularity, of his assaults.

The whipping body shots had Cristian grimacing and under big pressure by the third-round. It was becoming clear that he was unlikely to last the full eight and in the third, despite still pitching a few right hands of his own, Faccio was being pummelled by a merciless Acosta who always retained control. Referee David Irving stopped the fight at 2:10 of round-four in the interest of Faccio’s safety (so announced Mike Goodall). The Uruguayan waved his arms suggesting it was premature but even his corner man shook the head and gave him a look to suggest that his charge was only going to suffer more punishment if it had continued.

Skilful southpaw Coleman Barrett is staying active and that’s always a good thing. The confidence of the Galway man is clearly growing as he negotiated six rounds with Norbert Sallai. Whether Barrett is thrown into the lion’s den later in the year with returning Belfast hero Martin Rogan remains to be seen, but the Irish heavyweight champion once again showed that he has enough moves to make it an uncomfortable night for many domestic operators.

“Coley” opened the show on this occasion and immediately commanded centre ring with his southpaw jab and good movement. Sallai looked robotic and slow but proved his rugged toughness throughout the contest and was never truly dented by his opponent, but did suffer a welt under the left eye from the third-round. Referee Micky Vann totalled 60-55 on his card, indicating that Norbert had shared a round.

Featherweight Patrick Hyland is now 20-0 and has stored Irish and IBF Intercontinental titles in his trophy cabinet since turning pro in 2004. 27-year-old “Pajo” must now be ready to take the next step up in his career after a six-round “keep busy” assignment, beating Yordan Vasilev over six rounds.

Hyland was in great shape and used his skills and jab to dictate matters from the off. Vasilev was down in the second-round from a well placed barrage of punches and his face reddened as the beating intensified in the third. Patrick eased off the gas and turned southpaw in the fifth-round as Yordan went into survival mode. Third man David Irving’s 59-54 scorecard means Vasilev suffered another loss on his lopsided slate.

It’s good to see Westport’s Finbarr Eade getting some more ring time. The sawn-off lightweight may be advancing in years but he strikes me as the type of boxer that wouldn’t let anyone down if, say a few fights down the line, he was thrown in for a National title. The tattooed marauder followed up a first-round knockout win in City West in August with a win here over ubiquitous survivor Wladimir Borov from Bulgaria. Rugged Borov rarely gets halted but Eade did use his arsenal to have the veteran rocking on more than one occasion. “The Rock” carries a bit of pop in his fists and needs to stay busy to fulfil an Irish title dream.

Given that debutant Michael McLaughlin hailed from Donegal it was always going to guarantee the light-welterweight a fervent reception and this was certainly the case. Opponent on the night Valentin Stoychev had lost his only other fight to date and was up against it from the opening bell as McLaughlin established a sharp southpaw jab. However, the fast start was not a forbearer of things to come as Michael began to unravel from the second-round and escaped with only a draw.

Both men tasted the canvas in this four-rounder but by the end of the contest it was Stoychev who looked more likely to prevail, with McLaughlin feeding off his vocal following to try and fiddle through. Veteran coach John Breen looked visibly frustrated with Michael’s inability to follow instructions and when referee Micky Vann concluded at a 38-38 stalemate there were little complaints, apart from a couple of dissenting ringsiders who thought the plucky visitor had done enough to claim victory.

Talking of good receptions, Finglas super-middleweight Brendan Fitzpatrick enjoyed one in his debut fight last month when the exciting pugilist dismissed Poland’s Mariusz Radziszewski in two painfully one-sided rounds at the National Stadium. While Mariusz had lost all six of his professional bouts, the opponent on this occasion, Zahari Mutafchiev, sported a 2-3 slate which at least signalled that he had experienced the pleasure of having his arm raised. Fitzpatrick made sure he wasn’t going to enjoy that feeling tonight, outlasting Mustafchiev over six exciting rounds.

Ref Emile Tiedt gave it to Brendan by a score of 59-55 and it was never really plain sailing for the man trained by John Breen and Eamonn Magee. Fitz showed all the moves in the opener, putting Mustafchiev on the back foot and drilling in combinations with class. The pace slowed in the second-round and a little of the zip was missing. Fitzpatrick’s mouth trickled blood in the third and he shipped a couple in the fourth before a clearly fatigued Mustafchiev began spitting his gumshield out for respite.

Mr Tiedt did not take kindly to this and warned the away man, who was hanging on for dear life at the end of the contest as Brendan boxed his way home proving that he has the stamina to compete.

All photographs courtesy of Russell Pritchard