Michael Carruth returned to the place where he made his name as an amateur on Saturday night and marked the occasion with a convincing win over Chris Saunders from Barnsley.
Carruth admitted that, although it was his 19th fight as a professional, he felt a certain nervousness on his return to the National Stadium where his great amateur achievements at national and international level had been recorded.
These had all culminated in his historic Olympic gold medal win in Barcelona in August of 1992 and embellished an amateur career which had seen him win Irish titles at three different weights.
Carruth put up a highly impressive performance against Saunders, who seemed out of his depth from the start. One cannot help feeling that Carruth's excellence as a boxer of considerable quality will make it all the more difficult for him to get the kind of challenges which would ensure him of some big pay-days in the higher reaches of the game's stratosphere. He was never in any trouble and punished Saunders continuously with right hooks and crosses, speckled with some heavy artillery to the body.
It came as no surprise that Saunders' corner man, Brendan Ingle, and the referee, Barney Wilson, arrived at a unanimous decision with Ingle throwing in the towel and Wilson stepping in to stop the bout simultaneously in the fifth round.
Meanwhile, the bout which was billed to be the feature of the night lasted less than three minutes when Jim Rock waded in from the start in his pursuit of the Irish super middleweight title against Michael Alexander form Doncaster. An early swinging right to the head practically sealed Alexander's fate, and Rock swarmed in with both hands leaving Alexander in no condition to defend himself. The end came with further punishment for Alexander before Ingle and Wilson intervened.
Cathal O'Grady's progress in the cruiser-weight division continues with his 10th successive victory. Once again O'Grady stopped his man - Kevin Mitchell from London - in the first round, during which Mitchell visited the canvas twice leaving the referee with no alternative but to stop the fight.
O'Grady has now ended nine of his 10 contests inside the distance and, as in the case of Carruth and Rock, it will be necessary to find opponents who can put him under much closer scrutiny if his career is to progress and if he is to make a bid for international recognition.
Only two of the eight bouts on the bill went the stipulated distance. Belfast's Bernard McCumiskey beat Dave Gibson from Lancashire by 40-37 over four rounds, while Willie Valentine, the former professional jockey, had a 59-55 victory over Kevin Gerowski in a bout of six, two-minute rounds.
