Ben there, done that

BERNARD DUNNE went back to work in Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Hollywood, Los Angeles on Monday morning, satisfied with what he described as the best boxing performance of his fledgling professional career.

The Irish featherweight prospect had been in northern California last Friday night, making another important progression on the road he and his management team hope will lead him to a world title shot by, they are planning, the end of 2005.

Dunne beat the experienced and durable Panamanian Evangelino Perez with an unanimous points decision at San Jose’s HP Pavilion in northern California’s Silicon Valley.

By coincidence, Dunne was last in San Jose six years ago, fighting as an amateur in the year he won an Irish Examiner Junior Sports Star of the Year award for 1997, his boxing commitments preventing him from accepting the award in person.

This time round his assignment was the 11th fight of his professional career and it duly brought up his 11th victory, eight of which have come via knockout. Yet this time Dunne, who fights under the name ‘Ben’ Dunne after trainer Roach and promoter Sugar Ray Leonard failed to get their heads around the name Bernard, resisted the urge to unleash an early yet risky all-out attack on his veteran opponent.

Instead, he put together six solid and disciplined rounds of boxing against a wily veteran who had twice fought for the world flyweight title during the 1990s.

“That’s the best I boxed I think in 11 fights,” Dunne said as he relaxed with a pizza less than half an hour after the fight and looking as fresh and unmarked by his night’s work as when he had strode, decked out in green boots, shorts and robe, towards the ring to a backing track of the Pogues and Dubliners’ lusty rendition of The Irish Rover.

“I enjoyed that,” he continued. “I picked my shots and dominated the fight and felt good, really strong. I enjoyed it.

“It was a good performance and I showed I can box. The way I boxed really pleased me and the way I controlled the fight. He was a very experienced guy in there, boxed for two world titles, and to be in there with someone of that calibre and control him, dominate him throughout the whole fight was good.

“It was a good, all-round performance. I’m 11 and 0 now and very, very happy.”

Dunne won all six rounds to take the fight 60-54 on every judge’s scorecard and he was never in any trouble. With promoter Sugar Ray Leonard at ringside, he was always on the front foot and had Perez on the ropes inside the first minutes before landing a straight right to the face, followed by a hard right hook to the head and then unleashing a flurry of shots to the head and body before the bell brought the round to a close.

More of the same followed in rounds two and three as the Irishman went to work with a measured performance, still taking the fight to his opponent and still landing telling punches.

In the fourth, an opening left hook rocked Perez on his feet and was followed up by a another good flurry of punches which ended with a shuddering upper cut to the Panamanian’s chin. Dunne went back for more as the round came to an end and delivered a beautiful right hook to the side of Perez’s face and as the bell went he allowed himself a confident smile.

Maybe it was over-confidence because the fifth saw Perez come briefly back into the fight. Dunne’s hands dropped and suddenly he had some defending to do but he came out of it with a couple of left hooks and went on to take the round.

The sixth saw normal service resumed and while Perez proved a durable opponent, Dunne showed he has an array of effective shots at his disposal. He opened up with a left hook, landed some rights to the body and then launched a big upper cut to the delight of the 3,000, largely Hispanic crowd. It was a pleasing end to a satisfying performance.

Dunne’s trainer, the renowned Freddie Roach, said: “It was a good performance. He’s been out for a while and he showed a little bit of rust but he was fighting a veteran in there, a cute little fighter who set things up a little bit and I didn’t want Ben trading left hooks with him and getting caught.

“So I told Ben just to take his time with the guy and break him down. For the last round I told him to pick it up a little bit and give the crowd what they wanted because he was about ready to go.

“I would have liked to have seen more combinations but that’s something to work on in the gym on Monday.”

Both fighter and trainer were particularly pleased with Dunne’s discipline in the ring.

He had suffered the indignity of his first trip to the canvas as a professional during the second round of his last fight, a points win over Alejandro Cruz Ramirez. Roach had pin-pointed the moment as a lack of concentration and ring craft with his fighter’s gung-ho approach back-firing and leaving him open to an unnecessary retaliation.

So Roach had been working hard on Dunne’s discipline in preparing for this fight, teaching him to be patient, telling him to break down his opponent first before going for any knockdown and generally curb his enthusiasm.

“Bernard gets excited,” Roach had said before the fight, “but the better the opponent the less chance there is of a knockout. He has to break down a guy first.”

Following this performance, though, it appeared all the hard work had paid off.

“The discipline was good, although in one round there (the fifth) he got a little cocky and put his hands down, but it was a good experience for him.

That guy hasn’t been knocked out and it was a good opportunity for him. He needs guys like that to get better and progress.”

Dunne added: “This guy brought something new to me in the ring. He was a strong opponent, strong inside, worked his head around and did experienced things. It taught me something new and I’ve learned to control myself.

“I’m learning all the time, I’m only 11 fights into it. That was that guy’s 45th fight, I think. He’s had twice as many knockdown victories as I’ve had fights. So I’m very, very happy.

Next up for Dunne is another step up, Washington State-based Mexican Angelo Torres on March 27th. He has an 8-8 record and has not been stopped so is a tough customer, exactly the sort Dunne needs to progress up the rankings over the coming months.

They will fight over eight rounds as the main event at the Marconi Automotive Museum’s annual charitable gala in Tustin, California at the personal request of the state’s governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Last Action Hero was so taken by Dunne when he appeared on last year’s bill that he rang Leonard up personally to invite “the little Irish de la Hoya” back in 2004 as the headline act.

WITH the San Jose fight already scheduled, the charity event came a little too soon for Dunne’s manager Brian Peters’ liking but when the Terminator calls you need a good excuse to tell him ‘hasta la vista, baby’.

“I had the next fight in the back of my mind and I didn’t want to take too many chances. The last thing I needed at this stage was a cut.”

“Now we’ll go back to the gym and start working again.”