Sporting warriors beaten, bloodied but unbowed

TWO SONS of Ulster suffered lonely defeat on American soil this weekend but there was one sharp contrast in the circumstances of each loss.

One was a young golfer struggling through the surreal beauty of a Georgia golf course, safe in the knowledge that the world remains at his feet in spite of everything. The other was a journeyman boxer ending an 18-year professional career in defeat at the not so picturesque Prudential Centre in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday night.

Monaghan’s Kevin McBride may be doomed (or blessed) to be forever known as the man who ended boxing’s most notorious career in Washington DC in June 2005 but obviously he doesn’t quite see it that way.