Sutherland pounds opponent and adds to growing reputation

OLYMPIC middleweight bronze medalist Darren Sutherland produced another eye-catching victory in his second professional fight last night.

The Irishman lost to James DeGale last summer before the Englishman went on to win the gold in Beijing.

But while DeGale was given a frosty reception on his pro debut in Birmingham last weekend, Sutherland has had no such trouble.

The 26-year-old made it two wins from two at the Robin Park Arena in Wigan with a third-round stoppage victory over Belarusian Siarhei Navarka last night.

While Navarka came into the ring with a modest record of six wins and 22 defeats he proved to be commendably tough in the face of a systematic beating.

Sutherland bided his time for all of 20 seconds before taking control, initially with the stiff jab to feel his way in and quickly adding the left hook and straight rights to the head.

The Irishman remained patient, however, throwing shots from all angles to the head and body and keeping faith in the ram-rod jab.

The left hooks were perhaps his most prominent weapon in the second round as Sutherland remained composed and did not try too hard to force the early end.

He continued to land regularly but Navarka was proving to be a durable opponent, soaking up sustained punishment while showing few signs of cracking.

The fight had been scheduled for six rounds – unusual for such a fledgling professional – but Sutherland was hoping not to need them.

And early in the third Sutherland continued the assault with nothing coming back the other way, prompting referee Phil Edwards to end it just 26 seconds into the round.

Meanwhile Irish boxers Andy Lee and Wayne McCullough have been dealt a blow to their title ambitions following the cancellation of the March 16 card in New York they were due to appear on.

Irish Ropes Promotions announced last night that its scheduled Erin Go Brawl II professional boxing show at the WAMU Theater in Madison Square Garden had been cancelled, citing “the poor economy in the United States and Ireland that adversely affected advance ticket sales” for its decision.

Detroit-based middleweight Lee (16-1, 13 KOs), Ireland’s lone boxing Olympian at the 2004 Games in Athens, was scheduled to fight three-time world title challenger Antwun Echols (31-9-4, 27 KOs) in the main event.

Former WBC bantamweight champion and 1992 Olympic silver medallist McCullough (27-7, 18 KOs) had been set to meet Alex Becerra (19-7, 9 KOs) in the 10-round co-feature.

Irish Ropes had been hoping to sell the 4,000-seat theatre out on the eve of St Patrick’s Day, just as they had done with John Duddy headlining its first Erin Go Brawl event in 2007.

Irish Ropes president Eddie McLoughlin said: “This was a very difficult decision to make but ticket sales were way off compared to two years ago, when the economy was much better here and back in Ireland.