BOXING:Patrick Hyland and Brian Magee both suffered significant setbacks on different sides of the Atlantic on Saturday night after suffering losses in WBA World title fights in the USA and Denmark respectively.
Dublin-born Hyland, fighting on the Juan Manuel Marquez versus Manny Pacquiao undercard at the MGM Grand Arena in Las Vegas, dropped a unanimous decision to Javier Fortuna for the WBA Interim Featherweight belt.
All three judges scored the 12-rounder (115-113,116-112,118-110) to the unbeaten Dominican Republic southpaw against the Dubliner, who was installed as a 10/1 underdog by some Vegas bookies.
Saturday’s reversal was the first loss of his 28-fight career – and his first defeat in the pro ranks to a southpaw.
Meanwhile, Mikkel Kessler claimed his fifth world title after dethroning former Irish Olympian Brian Magee at the Boxen Arena in Herning, Denmark on Saturday night.
Magee, the defending WBA super-middleweight champion, was dropped by a body shot from the Dane in round two and Puerto Rican ref called a halt 24 seconds into the third after the Lisburn southpaw went down under a right hook.
“Mikkel is a great champion . . . . I gave it my all but a body shot like that is hard to recover from,” said Magee.
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