On This Day: October 22nd
1999: Wayne McCullough gave Mexican legend Érik Morales one of the toughest fights of his career in Detroit. The Belfast super bantam challenged for El Terriblé’s WBC title at the Joe Louis Arena losing on the scorecards (116-112 x2, 118-110) after Fight of the Year contender.. Morales would claim afterwards that the Pocket Rocket was one of the toughest opponents of his career and revealed that he contemplated retiring on his stool at the end of the ninth round.
Watch Wayne McCullough v Érik Morales in full below:
1992: Steve Collins lost a twelve-round points decision in Italy for the European middleweight title against champion Sumbu Kalambay. The Dubliner felt that he had won the bout but a unanimous decision win was awarded to the underrated Congolese-born champion.
Watch Steve Collins v Sumbu Kalambay in full below:
1963: Cork-born British middleweight champion Mick Leahy lost out in a vacant Commonwealth title scrap with Bahamian Gomeo Brennan at the Empire Pool in Wembley. The Leesider had drawn a bout with Brennan over eight the previous year but would lose out on the cards over fifteen.
1997: Belfast’s Stephen Kirk guaranteed light heavyweight bronze at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, with a narrow win over Tamer Erolov of Bulgaria (10:9). En-route to the final Kirk had stopped Uzbek Sergey Mikhailov (an Olympic bronze medalist three years later) and outpointed Austrian Zdravomir Dimitrijevic (6:2). In the semis the Shankill slugger was stopped by Russian eventual gold medalist Alexandr Lebziak. The bronze saw Kirk become just the fourth Irish boxer to medal at the Championships.
2011: Katie Taylor collected her fifth successive European gold at the championships in Rotterdam with a victory in the final against long-time Russian rival Sofia Ochigava (10:5). Earlier in the tournament in the Nethrlands, the Bray woman had defeated German Julia Irmen-Goeldner (15:7), Italian Romina Marenda (22:3), Azeri Aizanat Gadzhieva (17:4), and Helena Falk of Sweden (25:11).
1999: Wexford welterweight Derek Roche defended his British title for a second time against Scotland’s Scott Dixon in Coventry in what was one of the greatest British title fights ever. The New Ross boxer came on strong in the later rounds to claim victory a 117:114 in an absorbing contest that saw Roche hit the floor twice and Dixon go down thrice, to win the Lonsdale belt outright. Roche would claim afterwards that he felt Dixon had won the bout.
Watch Derek Roche v Scott Dixon in full below:
1947: Ballymoney’s Jackie Wilson would defeat Belfast’s Frank Boylan over fifteen rounds at the Ulster Hall to claim the vacant BBBoC Northern Irish middleweight title.
