Three years and three days on from the contentious judges’ decision that encouraged Noel Murphy to abandon his amateur career, the Cork welterweight hopes to make a victorious return to the National Stadium tonight.

Jorge Sebastian Heiland made a mockery of the bookies’ odds which ranked Matthew Macklin as a 1/20 favourite ahead of their WBC world middleweight title eliminator on Saturday night, but, in hindsight, Father Time was the most difficult opponent for the home fighter.

The rise of the Rebel has been put on hold after injury yesterday put paid to Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan’s weekend fight night in Cork.

Irish boxing star Gary ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan is still on target for a world title shot in 2013 — and next month he takes the latest step on that road.

CON SHEEHAN (Clonmel BC),the defending champion, andthe new pretender to the throne, Tommy McCarthy (Oliver Plunkett, Belfast), served up the best performance of an action packed weekend when they met in the quarter finals of the heavyweight division at the Elite national boxing championships at the National Stadium on Saturday night.