Dunne eyes Hunter fight as body blows stop Wilders
Dunne launched a ferocious bombardment of body shots that put the former world IBO champion on his knees two minutes and four seconds into the sixth round and left referee David Irving with no option but the stop the fight.
Dunne won the first, second and fourth rounds decisively and would have been even more emphatic had he not been over exuberant. The judges had rounds three and five level but one would have to question that as - throughout the contest - Wilders never landed a serious punch on Dunne, who sustained a nick over his left eye in a clash of heads in the third round.
Afterwards, Wilders put Dunne right up alongside Hunter, who has a mandatory title defence against Massimo Morra in Hartlepool on March 3, and Esham Pickering, who beat Wilders on points last May.
“I should not have lost that fight. It was my own fault,” Wilders insisted. “But Pickering is a very untidy fighter - all arms - but I think Bernard can cope with that.
“I have sparred Michael [Hutton] and he is not a big puncher. Bernard is much stronger. I think he is a real talent and he will go far if he can hold his head.”
Promoter and manager Brian Peters said that Dunne’s next contest would be in either the US or Europe - likely another trip to Germany where he was a big hit with the TV viewers in December - but ruled out Boston on St Patrick’s Day because the money was not right.
Dunne’s trainer Harry Hawkins pointed out that no matter where he goes from here they will be seeking out opponents with a top 10 ranking.
“That’s where we are at the moment and Michael Hutton has to be the target. I would see Bernard win a European title, defend it a couple of times in Dublin and then seek out boxers with world rankings in or around the top 10.”
Hawkins took a look at Wilders before the national anthems on Saturday night and saw what others did - the five weeks preparation was not enough to strengthen the midriff - and when he pointed this out to Dunne, it was body blows that proved decisive, as was the case when Silence Mabuza stopped Wilders five rounds into their IBO world title fight in South Africa last August.
Dunne went all out in the first round but only some of his body shots found the target. He hurt Wilders with some textbook combinations early in the second round, sending his opponent into survival mode.
Left jabs and hooks to the head and body, big right crosses to the head and Wilders was beginning to show all the signs of wear and tear but he used all his experience to elude the punch that would end the fight as Dunne came forward.
Wilders tried to hang on to Dunne in the third round but the Dubliner punished him, turned him into a neutral corner where he tried to pin him down, but again Wilders escaped the net.
Wilders’s damaged eye began to look bad in the fourth round and Dunne caught him with a succession of right crosses in the fifth. A big right to the body sent Wilders running for cover again.
And in the sixth round, it all came together for Dunne. Early flurries, a big right hand to the body, a vicious left, finished off with another right and Wilders was going no further.
“He was a very difficult opponent - elusive and difficult to pin down,” Dunne admitted afterwards.
“In the dressing room Harry [Hawkins] kept telling me to be patient but it is hard. I was trying to maintain my flow.
“Noel is such an experienced fighter we were planning for 10 rounds. We had watched his tapes and he has been in some hellish scraps so 10 rounds looked likely. But then, in the third round I thought I hurt him with a left hook to the body and decided this was the route to I had to take. I just had to be patient.
“This was a huge step for me and I trained hard for the fight. It was exactly as I expected it to be. He would use his experience and he gave it his all. For me, I just have this little scratch. I will be back in the gym as soon as possible.”
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