The National Stadium in Dublin last night resounded to the cheers of a capacity crowd as Stephen Reynolds from the St Joseph's Club in Sligo beat John Kinsella from Crumlin, Dublin in what was described at the ringside as the best super-heavyweight contest ever to have taken place in the National Senior Championships.
Both boxers had given everything they possessed and even before the decision was announced people were on their feet applauding them.
Although there were nine points between the contestants at the end of the match nobody could complain about either the decision or the commitment of the two men involved.
This was epitomised in the first round which ended with a 3-3 score as the two men attempted to assess each other's ability.
Then towards the end of the second round things seemed to drift in favour of the Dubliner when a splendid left hook to the jaw of Reynolds, the reigning champion, dropped the Sligoman in a neutral corner where he was given a statutory count of eight.
Even after that Reynolds was still leading by 6-5 at the end of the round and he extended that lead to make it 10-7 at the end of the third. The fourth round resulted in a toe-to-toe contest between the two men which brought the capacity crowd to its feet at the end of which Reynolds was adjudged to be leading 16-11.
From that situation it did not seem that Kinsella had any chance of winning other than by a knockout and he went after it with great courage and determination.
The two men stood against each other in a way which electrified the crowd and even before the decision in favour of Reynolds on a score of 23-14 was announced, supporters of both were on their seats applauding and were joined by the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern.
Earlier in the evening Bernard Dunne from the CIE club in Dublin stopped Michael Burke from Gorey in Wexford in round two after the Wexfordman had taken three statutory counts, while in the featherweight division the reigning champion Pat O'Donnell from the Dockers club in Belfast scored a narrow victory over the Dubliner Terry Carlyle on a score of 5-4.
In another bout where the reigning champion was victorious Eugene McEneaney from Dundalk had a narrow victory over Aodh Carlyle from Dublin with only a point between them on a score of 13-12 and that set up a superb climax to the first part of the programme with Neil Gough beating Francie Barrett and Reynolds beating Kinsella in what everybody agreed were the two best contests of the night.
There was a romantic end to the reign of Liam Cunningham from the Saint's Club in Belfast when he was stopped in the second round of their flyweight by Martin Murphy from St Paul's in Waterford. That assessment of the situation might not appeal to Cunningham but as far as Murphy was concerned it was the realisation of a dream long held.
Murphy has contested these boxing championhips for many years and is now on the verge of his 35th birthday and this was the first year in which he managed to qualify for the finals in spite of the fact that he had put up superb performances in early rounds some years ago against people of the calibre of Wayne McCullough.
At the start of his challenge to Liam Cunningham's Irish title there was little sign that Murphy's last attempt to win an Irish title would end in success. Nevertheless, at the end of the first round he imposed a standing count of eight with a right hook which surprised everybody including Cunningham.
In the early part of the second round Murphy now full of confidence took advantage of Cunningham's weakness and delivered a similar message which resulted in the referee stopping the bout.
