Hyland ready to continue European rise

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.

The Dubliner, whose brother, Paul, lost to Limerick southpaw, Willie “Big Bang” Casey, in their battle for the vacant European super bantamweight title at the University Arena last Saturday, was originally scheduled to box Massimo Morra who is ranked at No 15 but the Italian featherweight broke his hand sparring for the fight and Laze, an Albanian based in Italy and rated No 14, was quick to accept the offer to fill the vacancy.

Hyland may be rated two places ahead but he expects a tough fight from the Albanian and won’t be taking chances when they touch gloves in the main support to Andy Murray’s clash with world No 14, Claudinei “Volcano” Lacerda.

“It’s going to be a hard night’s work,” admitted Hyland. “Laze’s short and stocky and looks quite powerful. He’s only lost three of his 22 fights and all three defeats were on close decisions in good company. He’s never been stopped so I’m sure he’ll make things very difficult but these are the kind of fights you need to test yourself to keep progressing.

“He switches from orthodox to southpaw as well and in some of his fights he seems to fight mostly southpaw but I’ve a good record against left-handers. I’ve stopped any southpaw I’ve come up against in the pros and the European champion is a southpaw as well so it would be nice to continue that run all the way to the European title.”

The European featherweight title is currently the property of France’s Sofiane Takoucht and promoter Brian Peters revealed that the Ardennes man has already turned down a possible voluntary defence against Hyland.

“Takoucht won the title in August and we made him a very attractive offer for a voluntary defence against Patrick in Castlebar but he turned it down,” said Peters. “He didn’t want to make his first defence on the road and his team knew all about Patrick’s quality.

“Patrick didn’t need to think twice about taking the fight when it was put to him and Takoucht is in his sights but this weekend’s encounter is potentially very difficult so it’s a case of first things first.”

Hyland was ringside in Limerick two weeks ago to see younger brother Paul fail in his European title bid against Casey in the first ever all-Irish European title fight but he said it has not distracted him from his own preparations.

“It was obviously very disappointing but Paul will bounce back a better fighter,” he said. “You have to give credit to Willie for coming out on top. He did what he had to do. I have my own job to do on Saturday so I’ve focused on that and getting into the best shape possible.”

Cork manager, Gary Hyde, had a win each side of the Atlantic on Saturday night. His two-time Olympic champion, Guillermo Rigondeaux, beat former world champion, Ricardo Cordoba, for the interim WBA super bantamweight title at the Cowboys Stadium in Arlington. Bernard Dunne stopped Cordoba in the 11th round to win the world title in Dublin but this time Cordoba took it to a split decision. Another of Hyde’s boxers, welterweight Mark Heffron, knocked Chris O’Brien in Round 1 of 4 on the undercard to the David Haye-Audley Harrison WBA world heavyweight title debacle.