Undefeated: Cork bill preview

24 June 2010 – By Steve Wellings

Brian Peters Promotions move to Cork on Saturday June 26 for the next Yanjing Fight Night, with an eclectic mix of talent sharing a six-fight card at the Neptune Sports Arena. The show will contain a French connection with two journeymen travelling over the water to provide opposition for a couple of local prospects featuring in six-rounders.

Winner of the Prizefighter super-bantamweight tournament Willie Casey is looking to capitilise on his new found fame when the Limerick man meets Faycal Messaoudene over six-threes. The away fighter boasts only four wins to his credit and has lost six of his last seven, including a fifth-round KO to Scott Quigg which is the only stoppage loss from fifteen defeats.

“I know I still have a lot to learn in the pro ranks but I’m willing to fight anyone,” said Casey. The bigger the name and the bigger the reputation the bigger the challenge for me and I’m in this game to see how far I can go.”

Casey would do well to halt his rugged opponent and a points win is the likely outcome.

Unbeaten Cork light-middleweight Gary O’Sullivan has found ring time hard to come by recently and will be making his first outing of 2010, against Sylvain Touzet. Gary holds the Irish title at middleweight but told irish-boxing.com earlier this year that he prefers to campaign at the more natural 11-stone limit.

Touted as a puncher in his early career, “Spike” travelled the ten-round distance against Ciaran Healy to claim the national belt last December and could find himself frustrated by the grizzled 37-year-old Touzet who has mixed in good company throughout an eight-year career. O’Sullivan should win on points regardless.

Lightweight Andy Murray has been kept busy recently and the Cavan man will be looking to follow on from an impressive win over Jon Baguley in Belfast when he faces Laszlo Balogh of Hungary. Balogh’s record is statistically more pleasing than the aforementioned away men, as he sports a 7-2-1 slate and the 21-year-old should bring some youthful enthusiasm to the Neptune Arena.

More telling is the fact he has been stopped in his both of his losses, including last time out in five rounds by John O’Donnell. Murray is unconcerned, continuing to focus on a European title crack at namesake John.

“I feel I’m ready for a European title shot now but I realise I might have to be patient so it’s great to be as busy as I am right now,” said Andy.

“For any pro I think that fighting regularly is the key to improving and progressing up the ranks. It keeps you in routine and it keeps you focused because you know once you have one fight out of the way there is another coming up just around the corner so it keeps you sharp,” he added.

Murray is maturing into a class act and can halt Balogh by the middle stages of this scheduled eight-rounder.

No Cork bill would be complete without an appearance from at least one of the three Cubans and this bill will feature every member of the trio, all in action against solid levels of opposition over eight rounds.

Super-bantamweight Alexei Acosta gets a tasty assignment against Jose Saez, heavyweight Mike Perez tackles reasonable American Jason Barnett and Luis Garcia meets fellow super-middleweight Demetrius Davis.

Acosta has removed all ten of his professional opponents thus far and will be looking for an eleventh win, over Argentine Saez who contested eight rounds with Steve Molitor in his last-but-one outing. He can hold his own in good company but usually gets stopped. Alexei can join the group by removing Saez in the early rounds.

Florida-based heavyweight Barnett meanwhile will face Mike Perez while enjoying a rich vein of form, coming off the back of two knockout wins including one against once-touted John Poore. This will be the first time he has travelled outside of America for a bout and unbeaten Perez, who made history in Limerick last month with two wins in one night, is unlikely to be in an unforgiving mood. If Barnett can survive the early onslaught he can conceivably last the distance, but that is a big if.

Finally, Luis Garcia returns off the back of a solid stoppage win over Nathan King in the King’s Hall earlier in June. Garcia is looking to shed the rust that has weighed him down after a year-long hiatus from the ring. American Demetrius Davis is now aged 40 and coming to the end of a career that has seen him mix with the likes of Bryant Brannon, Eric Lucas and Omar Sheika. He pulled off a shock in Germany just weeks ago when 12-0 Arthur Hein retired with an injury to hand Davis his first win in seven bouts.

Despite this upturn in fortunes he is not expected to test Garcia for too long before the Cuban lands the big shots and removes his man well before the end of the contest.