NEW heavyweight sensation Tyson Furey stopped Nicolai Firtha in the fifth round of their scheduled 12 rounder at the King’s Hall, Belfast on Saturday when Willie ‘Big Bang’ Casey shared the limelight with an eighth round stoppage against Daniel Kodjo Sassou to re-launch his career.

WILLIE ‘BIG BANG’ CASEY’S return to competitive boxing has been put on hold after a problem with the venue emerged yesterday.

WILLIE “Big Bang” Casey is ready to return to the ring under new management for a tilt at the durable French super bantamweight, Daniel Kadjo, at the Limerick Institute of Technology on September 3.

A DREAM ending to the perfect fairytale would see Willie “Big Bang” Casey claim the belt at the Citywest Conference Centre tonight but even the Limerick man’s combination of heart, strength and a defiant attitude is unlikely to strip Guillermo Rigondeaux of his WBA world super bantamweight title.

WILLIE “Big Bang” Casey is about to face the best 122 lb puncher of all time.

GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX will complete his preparations for his world title defence against Willie “Big Bang” Casey at a special training camp in Cork.

CONTRARY to earlier reports that the much anticipated WBA World Super bantamweight title fight between Willie “Big Bang” Casey and the Cuban Guillermo Rigondeaux on March 19 would not be televised, it now appears that the fight will be shown on TV3.

GUILLERMO Rigondeaux yesterday told of the pain and anguish of leaving his wife and young son behind him when he left Cuba to pursue a professional boxing career.

THE promoters of the Guillermo Rigondeaux versus Willie “Big Bang” Casey world title fight have expressed regret at RTÉ’s decision not to televise the event.

WILLIE “Big Bang” Casey and Guillermo Rigondeaux came face to face at the Montenotte Hotel in Cork for the first time on Saturday ahead of their world title fight in March.

GUILLERMO RIGONDEAUX comes face to face with Willie “Big Bang” Casey at Hotel Montenotte in Cork this afternoon.

HE may have won two Olympic gold medals and two amateur world titles before claiming the WBA crown, but Willie “Big Bang” Casey has found Guillermo Rigondeaux “boring to watch.”

WILLIE ‘Big Bang’ Casey and Guillermo ‘El Chacal’ Rigondeaux will exchange pleasantries for the first time ahead of their March 19th showdown when they meet at the Lee Rooms in the Montenotte Hotel in Cork next Sunday at 2pm.

GUILLERMO “El Chacal” Rigondeaux returned to his training camp in Houston, Texas, yesterday with words of warning for Willie “Big Bang” Casey in advance of their WBA title fight at the Citywest Conference Centre on March 10.

WILLIE “Big Bang” CASEY will touch gloves with the two-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux for the WBA super bantamweight title at the Citywest Conference Centre on January 19 following agreement between the camps.

WILLIE ‘Big Bang’ Casey could be the ideal opponent for the two-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, according to the Cuban’s manager Gary Hyde.

PATRICK HYLAND will have an opportunity to reinforce his rating with the EBU and, ultimately, his claims for an early shot at a European title when he takes on Suate Laze at the Hunky Dory’s Fight Night in Breaffy House Resort in Castlebar on Saturday night.

CORKMAN Gary Hyde has signed a new deal that will kick-start the stalled professional career of two-time Olympic champion Guillermo Rigondeaux, considered by many to be the best amateur in boxing history.

A CORK woman has consented to judgment for some €2.6 million against her arising from loans advanced by ACC Bank to her and others.

THE three Cuban boxers based in Cork are all set to relaunch their careers under new management.

THE emphasis will be on the four Irish title fights on the bill, but Cork-based Cuban knockout sensation, Alexei Acosta, is sure to claim a fair share of the limelight when he steps up in class to box former world champion, Felix Machado, in a unique Latin-American duel on the Yanjing Fight Night at the National Stadium tomorrow night.

EDDIE HYLAND, after his points win over Oisín Fagan in a thrilling Irish title fight earlier this year, returns to an old haunt when he tops the bill on the “Best of the Irish” show at the National Stadium, tonight.

LOUIS GARCIA could challenge for a world title before the end of the summer, according to promoter/manager, Gary Hyde.

CUBAN pair Alexei Acosta and Luis Garcia, will enjoy star billing at tonight’s boxing/dinner show in the Silversprings Hotel in Cork but the Irish pair of Gary “Spike” O’Sullivan from across the river in Mahon and Jamie Power from Limerick are sure to claim their share of the limelight.

IRISH boxing has a wealth of middleweight talent and two promising newcomers to the pro scene will be involved in an all-Dublin contest when DolPhil stage an eight-bout show at the City West Hotel on January 30.

HARRY DUIVEN Junior, a heavyweight from Amsterdam, plans to succeed where others have failed by putting an end to the unblemished record of Mike “The Rebel” Perez at the dinner-show at the Silversprings Moran Hotel in Cork tonight.

MIKE ‘THE REBEL’ PEREZ will be in line for a world heavyweight title shot inside two years, according to his manager Gary Hyde, who insisted he was not surprised at the devastating manner in which the Cuban demolished Luis Oscar Ricail less than a minute and a half into Sunday’s scheduled eight-rounder at the INEC in Killarney.

DAN GOOSEN, one of boxing’s leading promoters, wants a slice of the Mike Perez action and, once “The Rebel” comes through Sunday night’s engagement in Killarney intact, he will travel to LA to meet him in person.

MIKE “THE REBEL” PEREZ will take a huge step up in class for his next fight — top of the bill at the INEC in Killarney on October 26 — when he will face the Mike Tyson lookalike, Clifford “The Black Bull” Couser.

TWENTY seconds and one punch — that was all it took for Mike “The Rebel” Perez to demolish the 19 stone Brazilian, Claudemir Diaz, at Neptune Stadium on Saturday night.

MIKE ‘The Rebel’ Perez faces a defining moment in his fledgling pro fight career when he takes on Claudemir Diaz, a bulked-up heavyweight from Sao Paulo, at Neptune Stadium in Cork tonight.

MIKE “The Rebel” Perez is all set to dispel any doubts about his ambitions when he takes his professional boxing career to a new level at Neptune Stadium on Saturday night.

BRITAIN’S hopes of a gold medal in boxing suffered a knockout blow when their world lightweight champion, Frankie Gavin, failed to make the 60kg limit on the eve of the weigh-in.

MIKE ‘The Rebel’ Perez, a former world junior champion, will headline the most exciting professional boxing show ever staged in Cork where he will be joined by two other Cuban-born world junior champions on another Nowhere to Hyde bill at Neptune Stadium on September 13.

MATTHEW MACKLIN takes on former world champion Yori Boy Campas at the next Ladbrokes.com Fight Night in the National Stadium, Dublin, on March 22 and this could be the fight of the year.

THE punching power of Mike “The Rebel” Perez was manifested in just 41 seconds of brilliance at the UL Arena on Saturday as he disposed of the Hungarian heavyweight, Sandor Baloghs, with just two punches.

ISMAIKEL PEREZ, awaiting an opponent for his Cork debut on the undercard to the Billy Walsh-James Gorman Irish title fight at Neptune Stadium on Saturday night, has been pencilled in on the undercard to the Andy Lee-Alejandro Gustavo Falliga fight at the University of Limerick Arena a week later.

IRISH boxing embraced a new star at the weekend as the jet-lagged Cuban southpaw sensation, Ismaikel ‘Mike’ Perez was ringside for the national senior championship finals in Dublin just hours after he touched down at Cork Airport.

FORMER world amateur heavyweight champion, Mike ‘El Rebellio’ Perez, is set to make Cork the base from which he will challenge the world professional heavyweight title in a dramatic move that is sure to send shockwaves throughout the boxing world.

BILLY WALSH will find himself fighting for an Irish title after just a handful of professional bouts when he takes on the experienced James Gorman for the vacant light welterweight title at Neptune Stadium in Cork on January 26.

THERE has not been a punch thrown in anger but already Cork’s Billy Walsh has made a dramatic impression on the forthcoming professional boxing show at Cork City Hall, erasing talented Dubliner, Patrick Hyland, from the programme.

Following the success of February's sell-out show at the City Hall, professional boxing returns to Cork on Saturday, August 18 for the 'Battle on Leeside'.

A PUB in Cork has been given the maximum fine for allowing patrons to smoke in a substandard smoking room.

BILLY WALSH will arrive at today’s weigh-in (4pm) at the Clarion Hotel with a clean bill of health for tomorrow night’s clash with Moroslov Kubik from the Czech Republic at Cork City Hall.