Headline News

European Title fight CONFIRMED for Paul Hyland Jr


Paul Hyland Jr [20(7)-1(1)] will fight for the European lightweight title next month.

The Lagmore puncher has this afternoon been confirmed as the next challenger to Francesco Patera [21(7)-3(0)] and will take on the Belgium-based Italian in Milan on Saturday June 28th.

‘Hylo’ was due to face Jordan Ellison on the ‘Summer Brawl’ card this Saturday night in Belfast but was pulled from the bill last month with talk swirling that he would face Patera in a voluntary defence.

That fight has today been confirmed and will take place on a Matchroom Italia show at Allianz Cloud Arena live on DAZN.

Patera is looking to make the second defence of his title since his sensational upset win over Lewis Ritson last October.

While the Genk-based boxer was a former champion having traded wins with Edis Tatli in 2017, few gave him a chance against the fearsome Geordie who was being groomed as a new arena-filler for Matchroom.

However, Patera came through a rough start to outbox a drained Ritson down the stretch to claim a deserved win and the vacant title – which he defended versus Frenchman Marvin Petit in March.

Former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby is mandatory to the blue belt but Hyland will get a voluntary shot first and will be looking to prove once more that triangle theories matter little in boxing.

The Belfast fighter was stopped in the opening round by Ritson last summer in Newcastle, getting caught in the same early storm which Patera weathered.

After the loss, Hyland bounced back with a win over Mexican journeyman Giovanni Martinez in Tallaght and would then climb off the canvas to outpoint strong Czech light welter champ Miroslav Serban at the Ulster Hall in February.

The 28-year-old stated that he was keen to return into title fights and now gets a shot at the ‘real’ European title.

Afiliated to the WBC – Patera is currently ranked #11 – the EBU title, with its rankings, history, and procedure, is rightly viewed as the sole meaningful continental title and the super featherweight equivalent was won last year by Hyland’s MHD stablemate James Tennyson.

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Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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