BOXING: There were incidents aplenty at Saturday's fight night in the National Stadium, including one scuffle not on the seven-bout card. A prerequisite of working security at a professional boxing event should be the ability to recognise a former middleweight world champion due to appear on live television.
Steve Collins was denied re-entry to the stadium through the entrance between RTÉ's truck and the broadcast stage. A member of the security staff escalated a heated argument by punching Collins in the chest. Collins countered with a left uppercut that reportedly scattered several teeth, but in the process so severely lacerated his hand that the ringside physician, Dr Joe McKeever, dispatched him to the James Connolly Hospital in Blanchardstown for stitches and a tetanus injection.
Another retired middleweight, the 1992 Olympic gold medallist, Michael Carruth, replaced Collins as a pundit alongside Mick Dowling for the live RTÉ broadcast.
None of the 14 boxers in ring action were injured but ambulances were kept busy as, shortly before the Collins incident, an uninvited punter opted against shelling out €50 for a ticket only to break both legs while trying to scale the back wall of the stadium.
In the main event Bernard Dunne put on an impressive display that eventually persuaded the David Martinez corner to throw in the towel in the eighth round.
