BOXING:Bernard Dunne and Andy Lee. Take your pick. The former is the European super bantamweight champion and tonight making the most risky defence of his career against an unbeaten Spaniard on the rise, the other a young Limerick middleweight moving seamlessly through the ranks under the guidance of legendary trainer Emanuel Steward. Detroit based, Steward, who has trained many world champions from his famous Kronk Gym, claims that Lee will be another name to add to his titleholder list by 2008
While Dunne, tonight, remains the main attraction, many in the sell-out Point will also be looking at Lee, who fights for the first time professionally in Dublin. The star of Irish amateur boxing following the Athens Olympic Games in 2004, and who the Irish Sports Council was prepared to pay more money to than any other athlete just to remain as an amateur for the Beijing Games, makes tonight's card the best promoter Brian Peters has yet assembled.
The third fight on the undercard will make history, when Tony Oakey defends his British light heavyweight title against Lisburn's Brian Magee. The contest will be the first British title fight to be staged outside of Britain since the prestigious Lonsdale belt was first awarded in 1909.
Portsmouth native Oakey will enter the ring as champion but Magee is expected to provide a major challenge.
Dunne's opponent, Kiko Martinez, brings an unblemished record with him, although this will be the first time the 21-year-old has fought outside of Spain. He lost none of of his 40 amateur fights, and is already 16-0 in the professional game. Gifted with a knock-out punch, Martinez has stopped almost all of his opponents in both amateur and professional bouts.
However Dunne, who at 5ft 7ins, is two inches taller and at 27, six years older, brings greater experience to the fight; the Spaniard is obviously being fast-tracked by his management to greater things. It's a marked a contrast to Dunne's well choreographed and deliberate path to this European title.
One issue that came back at the unbeaten Dubliner after his last fight against Norwegian, Reidar Walstad, was whether he was being asked to work too hard to make the weight. Walstad, although acknowledging the Dubliner is a class act and potential world champion, said his punches, which arrived fast and frequently, didn't hurt as much as they should have. Perhaps that was Viking bravado but Walstad did go the full 12 rounds with the champion.
That aside Dunne has been most controlled in his last outings and at 24-0 with 16 KOs, he is rightly expecting to dominate the fight. He also knows Martinez has never before fought in front of a partisan crown of over 7,000 fans.
"There will only be two of us in the ring. Eight thousand people won't help me or Bernard Dunne," responded Martinez. "I know he is a good rival and a good champion but I prepared well for this fight and I feel that I have a good chance of winning."
However, Martinez cannot claim to have fought anyone of class. His last bout earlier this year was against Andrei Florin, who had won one and lost 12. Before that he beat Eddison Torres, who had lost 25 of 39.
Dunne will be expecting to win, Lee too and in 18-months' time, some expectations are that Ireland could have two world title-holders. Heady days ahead. But first Martinez.
