'No way anyone will beat me'

Boxing:  Despite insisting otherwise, Bernard Dunne will unquestionably have revenge on his mind when he defends his European…

Boxing: Despite insisting otherwise, Bernard Dunne will unquestionably have revenge on his mind when he defends his European super-bantamweight title against Norway's Reidar Walstad on Saturday night.

Dunne, the new golden boy of Irish boxing, will make the second defence of his title against the man who robbed him of a medal at the European Championships in Belarus in 1997.

Ten years on they meet again on the European stage but Dunne has no doubt that the result will be reversed at the Point Theatre in Dublin.

"Back in Belarus he beat me fair and square because he had that amateur style that suits the computer, hands held high and he picked me off because I was coming in swinging punches from everywhere just wanting a fight," said Dunne.

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"I've changed an awful lot since then but from watching tapes I don't think he has.

"He's still very tight defensively and he'll be looking to catch me as I attack. But he's smaller than me and he's the challenger so he has to come to me and that will fall into my plans. I'll jab the head off him.

"I never take any fighter for granted but when I have worked as hard as I can in the gym and I know my preparation has been first class there's no way anyone is beating me."

The charismatic Dubliner is already ranked in the top 10 of three of the four major world governing bodies (WBA, IBF and WBO), with the WBC having him ranked at 11.

A world title cannot be far away but Dunne says he wants to clean up all serious European challenges and the European Boxing Union have ordered him to defend against unbeaten mandatory challenger Kiko Martinez of Spain, who is ranked just one place below the Irishman at 10 by the WBA.

"Martinez will be a huge fight for me, assuming that I deal with Walstad of course. Martinez is unbeaten like me and he has a string of knockouts on his record," added Dunne.  "But I love a challenge and I think the bigger the challenge the better I fight so bring him on."

Walstad, for his part, will draw on that amateur win 10 years ago as he bids to topple Dunne in front of his own supporters.

"The fact that I have already beaten Bernard gives me great confidence that I will do it again," Walstad said. "I know that we are both professionals now but for me Bernard still fights the same way as he did back then.

I've watched a lot of his fights and I don't see much difference. He still makes the same mistakes and I will take advantage of those."

"I know the European title is coming back to Norway. This is the title I want, for me the European title is more important to me than winning a World title because there is only one European title but there are many versions of the World title."