KENNY EGAN may have an Olympic silver medal but Ireland’s most decorated boxer of thisgeneration will face a difficultassignment in his quest for asensational 11th successive national senior title.

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.

WILLIE “Big Bang” Casey returns to camp on Monday to prepare for his World title fight against Cuban sensation Guillermo “El Chacal” Rigondeaux at the Citywest Conference Centre on March 19.

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

WILLIE ‘BIG BANG’ CASEY will headline a big professional boxing show at Neptune Stadium, Cork, in January.

WILLIE “Big Bang” CASEY claimed his place among the legends of Irish boxing in his hometown of Limerick on Saturday night when he sensationally stopped Paulie Hyland in four spectacular rounds to win the European super bantamweight title.

WILLIE ‘Big Bang’ Casey and Paul Hyland were primed for battle as they weighed in for tonight’s all-Ireland European title thriller at the University Arena in Limerick.

A FUND-RAISING campaign for children affected by the extremely rare Battens Disease reached new heights over the weekend.

WILLIE “Big Bang” Casey says he is the one who’ll be gunning for Kiko Martinez once he takes care of business tomorrow night against Italian super bantamweight, Emiliano Salvini, at CityWest Hotel where Dolphil Promotions stage a 10-fight card with Limerick’s Prizefighter top of the bill.

Katie Taylor relinquished her proud unbeaten run stretching back to May 13, 2007 after she was beaten by former World champion Sofya Ochigava of Russia in her lightweight semi final at the Usti na Labem Gran Prix in the Czech Republic yesterday.

KENNETH EGAN kept on course for an historic 10th successive Irish senior title with a one-sided 21-2 victory over Denis Hogan (Grangecon) in last night’s light heavyweight semi-final at the National Stadium.

KENNY EGAN has put past problems behind him to chase a record 10th successive national senior title at the Elite Boxing Championships which gets under way at the National Stadium tonight.

JOHN JOE JOYCE impressed on his move into the welterweight division when he outpointed Golden Gloves champion, Quintin Fortune of the NYPD, at the Rochestown Park Hotel in Cork on Saturday night, where a Garda/Rylane Boxing Club selection hosted team from the New York Police Department at a sell-out dinner show.

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.

GARY ‘Spike’ O’Sullivan will take his professional boxing career to a new level when he challenges Ciarán Healy from Belfast for the vacant Irish middleweight title at Neptune Stadium in Cork on November 28.

THE draw did Irish boxers few favours at the world boxing championships in Milan and this was reflected on the first day of competition when they met with mixed fortunes.

THREE European championship medallists, one of whom is an Olympian, and two national champions have missed out as the Irish team that departs today for a training camp ahead of next month’s world amateur boxing championships in Milan was named.

The Irish Amateur Boxing Association have confirmed an 11-man squad for next month's 2009 AIBA World Senior Championships in Milan, Italy.

KENNETH EGAN predicted last night that he will become the first Irishman since legendary thrower, Dr to win two Olympic medals.

Ken Egan has beaten Darren Cruise in the third round of their light heavyweight final at the IABAs Open Senior Competition at the National Stadium in Dublin tonight.

THE battle for Irish boxing’s light welterweight division takes place at the National Stadium tonight when Philip Sutcliffe (Crumlin) bids to cement his position at the top and a place in the team for the world boxing championships in Milan next September.

DARREN O’NEILL will miss the Open Tournament which will be held at the National Stadium over the coming two weekends to help select the Irish boxing team for the world championships in Milan in September.

Ireland beat the USA 9-3 at the National Stadium in Dublin last night to take a commanding advantage into Sundays second meeting between the nations at the Arch Centre in Athy.

KENNETH EGAN caused a major sensation in Irish boxing long before last night’s big home international against the USA got underway when the Olympic silver medallist failed to show up for the weigh-in.

Olympian hero Kenny Egan punched his way into the history books at the Elite National Senior Championships at the National Stadium in Dublin last night, defeating Belfast light heavyweight Tommy McCarthy to become the only Irish boxer in the 98-year history of the IABA to win nine Irish senior titles in a row.

DAVID OLIVER JOYCE (St Michael’s, Athy) and Carl Frampton (Midland) claim star billing when they meet for the third time in a year in the featherweight final at the National Senior Championships in the National Stadium tonight.

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.

JOHN Joe Joyce moved within one bout of a place on the Irish team for next month’s European Championships in Liverpool following a convincing win over Philip Sutcliffe in the semi-finals of the Open Senior Competition at the National Stadium in Dublin on Saturday night.

CORK boxing legend Seanie Barrett returns to action tomorrow night at the Riverside Park Hotel in Macroom (8pm).

Darren Sutherland and Darren O'Neill will meet in a repeat of last January's Irish senior middleweight final tonight after Sutherland advanced from last night's semi final box-off at the National Stadium in Dublin.

DARREN SUTHERLAND of St Saviours OBA set up another exciting middle-weight meeting with Darren O’Neill (Paulstown) in tonight’s finals when he stopped Sean Shevlin in the second round of their box-off at the National Stadium last night.

THE absence of four-time champion, Ian Tims, raised some eyebrows at this year’s national senior boxing championships.

DARREN SUTHERLAND has gone back to his roots in defence of his national senior middleweight title and he cannot believe that some people have written him off in advance of the anticipated showdown between himself and Darren O’Neill in the finals of the national senior championships at the National Stadium tomorrow night.

A High Court judge has said during a manslaughter sentencing that he has been "haunted by the conditions of the cruelly-named Fatima Mansions" during the course of the trial which was heard at the Central Criminal Court last February.