Dunne aiming for a shot at European crown
The Ukrainian is ranked seventh in line for a shot at Nicky Cook’s European title and should Dunne displace him, he would be a very real candidate should the Englishman opt for a voluntary defence.
Cook has a mandatory defence against the No 1 challenger Dazzo Williams rescheduled for next month and when that is over Brian Peters, who manages and promotes the 25-year-old Dubliner, will attempt to lure Cook to Dublin.
Meanwhile Dunne has some serious business to attend to tonight when his fight against Voronin will be televised live on RTÉ 2 television.
The build-up to the contest did not have all the fanfare and frills of the emotional homecoming against Jim Betts in February but at yesterday’s weigh-in in Jury’s Hotel, it was easy to detect just how seriously Dunne is taking the fight.
Amazingly, Voronin had a fight last Saturday night when he stopped Nadir Kholkazaron in seven rounds but he insisted yesterday that he was not showing any disrespect for Dunne by taking the fight.
“It came up and I took it,” he said. “I respect Dunne. I have never seen him box but I come here to win. I have a plan but I will keep that a secret.”
Dunne made no secret of his plan, however. “It’s to win the fight,” he said.
“Yuri is a very good fighter. He is tough, he has a big punch and he has a southpaw. I have trained for 10 rounds because I expect it to go the distance.”
His last fight against a southpaw also went the distance and that was a thriller against Adrian Valdez in St Paul that left the Dubliner with cuts and a damaged hand.
His trainer Harry Hawkins said Dunne is in the shape of his life and he has taken every precaution with his preparations.
“We brought in three of the top southpaw featherweights in Britain to spar, so that won’t be a problem,” he said. “But we have worked on a lot of things. Bernard is an American-style fighter - that is only to be expected - and he has a lot of good points but there were certain things we had to work on.”
Watching from the ringside tonight will be Brendan Ingle, the Dubliner who took Naseem Hamed to the world title. He currently has the European super bantamweight champion, Esham Pickering, in his stable and admitted Dunne could be a possible future opponent.
Tonight’s six-bout card is historic in that it will also feature two Irish title fights. Matthew Macklin, whose father Seamus hails from Roscommon and his mother Kathleen from Holy Cross, will box Michael Monaghan for the vacant Irish middleweight title, while Dubliner Robbie Murray meets Peter McDonagh from Galway for the Irish light welterweight championship.
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