BOXING MIDDLEWEIGHT BOUT:IT MIGHT not have been the most important fight of the card in terms of titles but Darren Sutherland was the headline act last night after a stunning professional debut in Dublin City University's Sports Hall. The 26-year-old entered the ring to a chorus of approval from the home crowd and swiftly gave them a brief but impressive glimpse of the future when the referee stepped in to stop the fight after just two minutes and 44 seconds of the first round.
Wearing emerald green shorts with white trim, Sutherland faced the thickset Bulgarian, Georgi Iliev, whose only other visit to Ireland had resulted in the knockout of Castlebar's Keith Cresham.
But this was a different stage and, more importantly, a different opponent and from the very start of the fight it was clear not only was Iliev out of his depth in class but he was less physically in shape. Very quickly his porous defence became evident and Sutherland exploited the latter at will almost as soon as the fight began.
Sutherland staggered his opponent for the first time in the opening seconds and almost immediately a cut appeared under Iliev's left eye. After a minute of back pedalling, Iliev was blowing hard as Sutherland was landing dangerous straight lefts at will both to the head and body.
Another clean punch that put the Bulgarian backwards prepared the crowd for what was looking very like a much quicker end than Sutherland or even his fast-talking manager Frank Maloney could have imagined.
When Sutherland landed a right coming up to the three-minute mark, the referee jumped in to end the match. Iliev was bleeding, had taken three punches that had knocked him backwards and frankly had no future whatsoever in the same ring as Ireland's new Super middleweight.
There was only ever a slim chance of the Irish Olympic medallist losing out to an opponent who could be best described as having a patchy record and Sutherland came into the fight having spent his first four weeks as a professional in Maloney's base in London. Maloney had spotted his new fighter during his bronze medal-winning middleweight run in Beijing last summer and offered him a two-year contract shortly after the Games ended.
That his first fight was staged in the campus where he had been a student helped attract a close to capacity crowd of 1,400 with many of Sutherland's student colleagues present to add their support.
After his brief debut, Ireland has another professional to add to an ever-growing list. An Irish title bid at the end of next year and the world after that? Sutherland has never been one to aim low.
"In the dressing room I felt naked without the headgear," he said afterwards. "It felt good out there. I was maybe a little disappointed I didn't get more rounds under my belt and I took a couple of silly jabs.
"My objective is to improve with every fight. This is my first professional fight and there was a lot to take in, but we will step it up from here. People ask me what I want for Christmas; this is it right here, I love getting into the ring and fighting."
In the EBU Super bantamweight title fight Rendall Munroe beat Italian Fabrizo Trotta. The man, who Bernard Dunne has claimed is ducking him, won in the fifth round by a TKO. Trotta pulled up sharply holding his right hand after hitting Munroe on the head with a straight shot.
The fight that was billed as the bin man (Munroe, who comes into the ring wearing a high viz yellow vest, is a bin man) against the cabby ended after 1 minute and 27 seconds of the fifth after Trotta was examined by a doctor. In the Commonwealth Bantamweight title fight Nottingham's Jason Booth stopped Pontefract's Sean Hughes in the 10th round. The title holder floored his opponent with a body shot before his corner pulled him at the end of the round.
Dublin's Ken Egan is expected to make an announcement today on his future in boxing. Ireland's silver medallist from Beijing has openly spoken about a move from amateur boxing into the professional ranks but was taking time out to make up his mind.
The middleweight has not boxed since the Olympic Games.
Bantamweight- Commonwealth Title: R Munroe bt F Trotta TKO 5th round; J Booth beat S Hughes stopped 10th round; U Ahmed bt L Wilton 40-39: G Davies bt M Power TKO 2nd round; P Hyland bt E Hegeny 59-54; Light middleweight - W Thompson v C Chiverton draw
