Pierce O’Leary Outscores Determined Darragh Foley

Pierce O’Leary won the battle of Dublin as the 24-year-old super lightweight produced one of the most well-rounded performances of his career to comprehensively outpoint Darragh Foley. 

Foley, 22-7-1 (11 KOs), started out as a southpaw, using his front foot to keep the powerful O’Leary, 15-0 (8 KOs), away, although he did take a hard right hand to the body and a hard uppercut as O’Leary quickly worked things out. 

A brilliantly picked right uppercut sent Foley, 35, to the canvas in the second round. It was impressive work from O’Leary who was using excellent head movement to create openings and making the most of every single one of them. 

Foley is a tough man and after allowing his head to clear, he briefly engaged O’Leary in a hard exchange in the third. It wasn’t a wise choice and he was hurt by some hard, accurate shots to the head and body. 

O’Leary was putting together a superb performance, mixing his aggression with patience and never neglecting the body. He hurt Foley badly with a pair of left hooks in the sixth as the older man lost his shape and began to come apart. 

Foley pulled himself together relatively well. Without the power to make O’Leary doubt himself, he was fighting a battle for survival but instead of staying back and letting O’Leary move forward, Foley began to try and push him back. The tide never looked like turning but the change did make it harder for O’Leary to get clean shots off. An accidental clash of heads left both fighters with cuts over their eyes in the eighth.

O’Leary pushed on in the 10th, watching Foley with some accurate combinations but the tough, determined Foley made it to the final bell and although he never looked like winning, he maintained his record of never having been stopped.

The scorecards were 98-91, 98-91 and 99-90. 

Belfast featherweight, Colm Murphy, notched up a solid but scrappy win over Glasgow’s Jack Turner.

The ringside doctor halted the fight in the 10th and final round, deciding that Turner, 6-2, was unable to continue having suffered cuts over both eyes due to accidental head clashes. 

For some reason, Murphy, now 12-0 (4 KOs), was declared the winner by a technical knockout. The fight should have gone to the scorecards. 

The tall, rangy Murphy dominated the early rounds of the fight behind long, straight shots and was able to push Turner back to the ropes seemingly at will. Once there, he would let his shots go and Turner struggled with Murphy’s energy and activity. 

Turner seemed to accept his fate and rather than fighting to avoid being forced back, he began to concentrate on looking for opportunities to land counter punches during Murphy’s attacks. The Irishman’s workrate began to drop slightly in the fourth and Turner found it easier to land shots regularly, although he did pick up a cut over his right eye after a hard clash of heads.

Murphy’s corner told him to pick things up before the seventh round and he listened, picking up his punch output and making it much harder for Turner to have any success. Turner complained regularly about head clashes throughout and picked up another bad cut over his left eye in the eighth.

Turner had survived two inspections from the doctor but, with 90 seconds remaining in the fight, a third examination brought a slightly premature end to the fight. 

Murphy, 24, may be known as “Posh Boy” but he fought a hard, tough fight and extended his unbeaten run. 

Jadier Herrera’s British debut only lasted 161 seconds but the Cuban super featherweight was still extremely impressive. 

The 21-year-old has been training in Liverpool with Joe McNally and fell immediately into his rhythm, using a solid southpaw jab to rock back the head of Colombia’s Andres Navarette, 11-2 (2 KOs), from the opening bell. Hererra was too big, too strong and, most importantly, much too talented and soon stunned Navarette with a hard left hook to the point of the chin. Navarette remained upright but was done and referee, Mark Bates, quickly jumped in to stop the fight.

Herrera, 15-0 (13 KOs), looks like an extremely talented and dangerous operator. 

Champs Camp protege Joe Cooper, 1-0, held the center of the ring for much of his professional debut against Colombia’s John Henry Mosquera, 5-14 (1 KO). The 18-year-old super welterweight used his jab and paced himself well as he boxed his way to a 40-36 decision win after four rounds.

Cork’s Steven Cairns, 8-0 (5 KOs), stopped Jonatas de Oliveira, 6-11 (5 KOs), after just 56 seconds. The 22-year-old lightweight made the Brazilian cover up by backing him to the ropes and occupying him to the head and then quickly switched downstairs, leaving de Oliveira crumpled on the floor with a well-placed left hook to the body.

After opening his career with six consecutive first round finishes, Jack Turner, 7-0 (6 KOs) had to settle for only knocking down Darwing Martinez, 8-21-2 (6 KOs), during the opening three minutes of their four-round fight. 

The 22-year-old Liverpudlian bantamweight looked razor sharp and scored regularly with a fast one-two and it was one of those sharp attacks that dropped Martinez as the first round came to an end.

Martinez got up and punished Turner for rushing in a couple of times – bruising and cutting him under his right eye – but was troubled by Turner’s hand speed and put over by another right hand in the third. Despite his record, the Nicaraguan is a solid operator and gave as good as he got in the fourth round, catching Turner with some good shots. 

Turner’s eye-opening run of stoppages may have come to an end but he will have learned lots from his night’s work.