A full house at the Point Depot was again treated to the quick hands and growing reputation of Dublin's Bernard Dunne.
Last night the super bantamweight from Neilstown in Dublin successfully saw off the 29-year-old Kazakhstan fighter Yersin Jailauov in the first defence of his European title.
Jailauov came in as the seventh ranked fighter in the official European Boxing Union ratings, exactly the same place as Dunne was a year ago, and arrived in Dublin as an unknown quantity. Dunne had seen some tapes of Jailauov and was aware of his 23-19-4 record, but not much more.
The Kazak fighter also travelled to Dublin in hope more than expectation having lost two of his last three bouts. From the outset, Dunne landed blows on his opponent at will and began to work both head and body from the first round.
More aggressive and with much quicker hand speed, it was vintage Dunne, snapping in shots and literally putting his opponent on the back foot. The ease at which he was finding holes through the middle and the frequency of his punches must have concerned Jailauov even early on and although Dunne didn't rock him with anything, he was taking shots.
The Dubliner continued to effortlessly find gaps in his opponent's defence and really Jailauov was giving little back in response. From the second round it looked simply like a matter of time before the Irishman would bring the fight to a close.
An uppercut in the third round finally rocked the visitor and put him on the canvas. That brought the capacity 7,000 crowd to its feet and as Dunne continued to rain down a succession of blows, Jailauov staggered around. It was then all the Irishman and it beggared belief that the Kazak fighter stayed on his feet for so long under such a volley of accurate punches.
Finally the referee said enough and rightly so. Jailauov was unable to defend himself and he stepped in to end it after one minute 57 seconds in the third leaving Dunne on a perfect 23 fights with 23 wins.
On the undercard, Banbridge's Jason McKay beat England's Darren Rhodes 59-55 despite having to face the ring doctor midway through with a cut eye. The middleweight, who once beat New York sensation John Duddy as an amateur, brought his record to seven wins and one defeat from eight fights.
Irish middleweight champion Jim Rock also graced the ring for a scheduled six three-minute round fight against Hungarian Szabolcs Rimovszky. The 35-year-old, one of the few fighters who competes for the love of boxing and often gives his purse to charity, last fought in June 2006 but showed little ring rust dominating the contest and coming out a clear winner two minutes and 45 seconds into the second round.
Rock came over the top and caught his opponent with a right to the side of the head from which he didn't make the count.
LAST NIGHT'S RESULTS
International Light-Welterweight: S
Haughian (Ire) bt J Chill (Eng) 59-56.
International Super-Middleweight: J
Rock bt S Rimovszky KO.
International Super-Middleweight: J
McKay (Ire) bt D Rhodes (Eng) 59-55.