Deliverance for dazed Dunne

BERNARD DUNNE will remember it as the longest three minutes of his boxing career, if not his life, when he reflects on the sensational finish to Saturday’s victory over Ukranian, Yurin Voronin.

That’s how long the Dubliner’s unbeaten professional record hung in the balance. In fact it hung on just about everything - the ropes, the muscular shoulders of the Ukrainian and at times Dunne appeared to be reaching for the TV lights that hung from the roof of the National Stadium for something else to hang on to.

He was not the only one stunned by the vicious left hook that caught him behind the right ear. Fans too were shocked and one could hear a pin drop as Dunne switched to auto-pilot, bobbing, weaving and trying desperately to avoid the in-your-face opponent.

Referee David Irving might have stopped the fight but he took a close look at Dunne, saw that he was in control of all of his faculties and allowed him time to weather the storm.

“I was amazed at how quickly he had recovered,” the referee declared afterwards. “It spoke a lot for his fitness that he could recover like that after ten hard rounds. But his eyes were clear and I had no hesitation allowing him to continue. Maybe if there was another round to go it would have been different.”

Apart from a dodgy third round when he was nursing a nasty cut over his right eye - sustained in a clash of heads in the second - Dunne was coasting throughout the fight.

While the referee awarded two rounds to Voronin, the Dubliner was always in control, catching him with a punch in the closing seconds of the sixth round that would have ended any other fight.

The weariness evident at the end of the ninth disappeared in a new rush of adrenalin for the tenth, when the drama began to unfold. Dunne scored with some good shots but as he fought out of a neutral corner he dropped his guard and shipped the left hook that could have ended his dream.

“It was a good shot to the back of my head and just behind my right ear,” he recalled. “I knew what was happening but I needed time to recover.”

Now only the bell would save him, but it appeared as if the timekeeper’s clock had stopped ticking. Dunne hung on the ropes, wrapped himself around Voronin and wrestled, and the Ukrainian punched himself out in a supreme effort to finish the job. Then Dunne landed a big right. He smiled. The bell came and with it relief.

“I just got caught with a good shot, but thankfully I came through it. It is part of the learning experience. Yuri was a good fighter, he was tough, he had a strong defence and he had a big punch. From that point of view it was a good experience for me. There are not too many top fighters who would want to fight him. He kept pressing me, pushing forward. Those are the guys you are going to have to be able to handle if you are to fight for a world title.”

How far away that world title shot is right now remains to be seen but Dunne reached another milestone along the way in the form of a European ranking.

“That was the whole object of the exercise,” manager and promoter Brian Peters said. “Voronin was ranked seventh in the EBU rankings and now Bernard has claimed that spot. We will be looking at a number of options with a return to the US one of them. The prospect of linking up with John Duddy on a bill in New York is inviting.

“But we will take some time off now and review the situation. There is the possibility that he will box back here in Dublin in July and of course we will be talking to Nicky Cook about a shot at his European title.”

Matthew Macklin celebrated his 22nd birthday in style when he stopped Michael Monaghan in the fifth round of their fight for the vacant Irish middleweight championship. Macklin, whose mother hails from Holy Cross and whose father comes from Roscommon, had a huge following from both counties, as well as a big Birmingham following, to watch him dispose of Michael Monaghan, who boxes out of Nottingham, in clinical fashion.

Up to recently Macklin was a regular visitor to Tipperary and hurled in every county championship from under-12 to under-21.

Dubliner Robbie Murray, a cousin of Jim Rock, claimed the vacant Irish light-welterweight title when he outpointed Peter McDonagh from Galway over ten rounds.