McCloskey wins titanic battle with Prescott

Paul ‘Dudey’ McCloskey edged a titanic battle against Breidis Prescott in front of over 6000 fight fans at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast and now looks set to secure another WBA title shot.

From the first bell, the rangy, big punching Columbian was able to hit the normally very elusive target of Paul McCloskey with ease, in particular with his accurate and fast jab. Three rounds into the WBA eliminator and things looked very bleak for the Dungiven southpaw. He had lost all three rounds, suffered a contentious knock down in the first round and had a bust nose that was leaking very badly – severely impeding his breathing.

The knock down in the first looked very dubious, with the momentum of Prescott’s arm forcing Dudey to briefly touch the canvas. However, the first half of the fight went largely Prescott’s way. The Columbian looked effective on the front foot and McCloskey’s normally elusive robotic head movement deserted him early on. Moreover, there was a distinct lack of lateral movement from McCloskey.

In previous fights, McCloskey – when he is in form, is able to effortlessly circle away from the right hand of his orthodox opponent. But, in the early stages of this fight, he was flat-footed and his head movement was not sharp enough to evade the quick, rangy jab of Prescott.

However the turning point in the fight came in the fourth. McCloskey pushed Prescott back onto the back foot and stepped in to land hard single shots to the body. This allowed McCloskey to continue to press the fight. Slowly, McCloskey looked to be clawing his way back into the fight. McCloskey followed up with a good fifth. In the sixth Prescott was able to pierce McCloskey’s defence with a big right hand and seemed to buzz the Dungiven man. After that McCloskey began to edge the rounds, seven and eight were close, but the ninth was a more decisive round.

Fittingly, the final round was toe-to-toe with McCloskey dominating the first half, only to get tagged with hard shots near the end. A very close fight.

This writer had McCloskey up by one round, similar to a few others at ringside. However, if the fight had gone by a point to either man there could not have been too big a stir as several of the rounds were very close in a really competitive fight. The judges verdicts were: Terry O’Connor 115-113, Jean-Louise Legland 114-113, Giuseppe Quartarone 114-113 – all in favour of Paul McCloskey.

In the co-feature bout, Carl ‘The Jackal’ Frampton claimed the Commonwealth super-bantamweight title in a flawless display as he outclassed and stopped the brave Australian Mark Quon in the fourth round. The Belfast man put on a show for his large support, efficiently stepping in and out of range to pick off Quon and avoiding counters.

The first round was a feeling out round and it wasn’t until the end of the second, that disciplined Frampton, started to let his combinations go. By the third round Quon’s nose was bust and Frampton clinically landed hard body shots that were noticeably taking their toll on the Quon. Towards the end of the third Frampton exerted his complete control of the fight and rocked the Aussie with successive well-timed right hooks. In the fourth, Frampton dropped Quon with a heavy right to the temple. The Australian bravely fought on but could not protect himself from Frampton’s savage right hooks and the referee wisely stopped the contest after 1:11 of the fourth.

In a dominant display Belfast flyweight Luke Wilton outclassed Hungarian Arpad Vass over six rounds. Wilton stalked Arpad throughout the fight and particularly targeted the body. A couple of those body shots were deemed to have gone too low and Wilton was warned in the first. In the second another body shot landed too low for the referee’s liking and Wilton was deducted a point. Although one or two of the shots seemed to be too low, it could also be argued that Vass was wearing his shorts very high.

In the fourth, Wilton had his best round and forced Arpad on the ropes nailing his opponent with a volley of head and body shots. The referee took a close look but Vass was able to fight on. In the fifth, Wilton still dominated but he briefly got sloppy, standing in front of Vass and taking unnecessary one-two straight head shots. Wilton finished strongly to take this on a wide points margin of 59-54.

In only his third pro fight, the 2010 Commonwealth gold medallist Eamonn O’Kane stepped up to face the tough challenge of Joe Rea. This was a lively fight from the first bell and turned out to be the pick of the undercard fights, with both men going toe to toe for the full eight rounds. O’Kane started at a relentless pace, constantly coming forward and keen let his hands go from the inside. Surprisingly, Rea obliged and stood in front of O’Kane, taking a steady flow of ripping body shots in the process. Rea is normally a more elusive fighter, preferring to take pot shots and raid in and out, but he showed impressive toughness to go the distance with O’Kane.

At the end of the second round it didn’t look that this would go to points, as O’Kane landed flush right handed head shots and a high volume of heavy body combinations. In the fourth O’Kane landed his best punch of the fight, a sweet, flush left hook to the head, but Rea took it well and fought back. In the sixth, Rea had his most success, landing a flush to O’Kane’s chin, but the Dungiven dropped his hands and allowed Rea to follow up with another head-shot. Afterwards, O’Kane revealed that he wasn’t hurt and offered Rea a free shot ‘so he could feel like he was in a fight’.

O’Kane who is a big Manny Pacquaio fan, pulled a ‘Pacquaio move’ when he simultaneously landed a double hook – for which he was promptly warned by the referee. Rea rallied at the end of the seventh and in the final round. The final scorecard was 80-73 win for Eamonn O’Kane. A well deserved wide points victory and a great fight.

O’Kane’s exciting style is similar to the likes of Ricky Hatton - high intensity, pressure fighting and specialising in ripping body shots. Bigger fights are ahead for O’Kane.

Belfast’s Marc McCullough in only his second pro fight was matched tough against the experienced Dai Davies in a four-rounder. McCullough debuted only a couple of months earlier stopping fellow Belfast debutant Eddie Nesbitt in two rounds. In a lively opener both men traded body shots and Davies was looking to land his right hand. In the second, McCullough’s trainer, John Breen encouraged his charge to circle away from Davies right hand and McCullough was effective, bobbing and weaving and taking the fight to Davies.

The second and third were clear rounds for McCullough who made Davies miss and cashed in with his own shots, particularly his left hand, as he constantly put Davies on the back foot. The final round was action packed and a closer round to score, however this writer had McCullough the clear winner by two rounds.

Referee Paul McCullough somehow found a case to award the victory to Davies and the bizarre verdict for this four rounder was announced as 38-37 to Davies. It was later fed back to the press that there was a mistake and the wrong score had been announced with the official verdict being 39-37 to Davies. The Belfast fighter could feel rightly aggrieved at being on the wrong side of such a dubious verdict.

*The Liam Hutchinson v Arron Fox and Damian Taggart v Sid Razak fights took place after the main event. The writer did not see these fights due to the post-fight McCloskey presser taking place at the same time. However, it was confirmed that Australian Liam Hutchinson, who is a relative of Paul McCloskey, secured a 40-36 points win on his pro debut over Arron Fox.

Tyrone’s Damian Taggart was stopped in the second round by Sid Razak.