LIVE UPDATES – ONCE UPON A TIME UNDERCARD
It’s fight day.
Croke Park plays host to a massive night of boxing this Saturday.
And while the card, event, and occasion is about Katie Taylor saying farewell, it’s a massive chance for a host of Irish prospects to introduce themselves to fight followers around Ireland and beyond.
Supporting Taylor at GAA Headquarters and on the historic night are Thomas Carty in a fight with Dave Allen, Emmet Brennan who fights Taylor Bevan, an all-Irish affair between Tyrone McKenna and Paddy Donovan, Matthew Boreland takes on Joe McGrail, Boobi Flood fights, as does Adam Olaniyan and Paul Ryan versus Paddy Gallagher.
Irish-boxing.com are in the stadium and will be reporting live on all the action.
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FIGHT 1 Paul Ryan versus Paddy Gallagher
Paddy Gaggagher upset the odds in the card’s opening fight. The Belfast veteran made his return from retirement worthwhile, etching his name in history and becoming the first Croke Park winner since Muhammad Ali.
The Pat Man delivered over six rounds to claim a 58-55 win for Anrtim in GAA Headquarters.
The bout was competitive and hard to score with both landing clean on occasion. Indeed, the only stanza with a clear victor was the penultimate one, where the former BUI and BBBofC Celtic champion hurt the reigning Irish champ.
It’s a massive victory for the 37-year-old, who ended six years out of the ring earlier this year. Gallagher came back to banish the ghost of a controversial Chris Jenkins at the Feile. A win in Croke Park should ensure those demons are well exercised.
AMENDMENT – After the Boobi Flood win the ring announcer confirmed there was an error in the reading out of the scorecard and Irish Champion Paul Ryan was the victor.
FIGHT 2 Adam Olaniyan vs Matej Hudak
It’s done in one for Adam Olaniyan.
The 20-year-old stopped Matej Hudak before the bell to end the first stanza, winning the first heavyweight fight on Jones Road since the great Muhammad Ali beat Al Blue Lewis.
The Tallaght native is now four fights into his young career and remains the proud owner of a 100 percent knockout ratio.
Fight 3 Bobbi Flood vs Jack Swallow
It’s a routine win for Bobbi Flood. The young Dub got in some valubale learning at Croke Park and a day after he weighed in at Trinity College.
The former amateur standout shut out survival specialist Jack Swallow over four rounds. It’s rounds banked and experience gained for a fighter who excited early revellers with his ring walk.
Flood showed flashes of the clash that has many in the know excited about his future prospects across the 12 minutes but the British away fighter is well accustomed to going the distance and managed his way to the final bell.
Fight 4 – Joe McGrail v Matthew Boreland
Joe McGrail takes out Matthew Boreland with a vicious left hook to the body in the fifth round of their schedule 10-rounder.
Boreland was battling gamely, but McGrail landed the decisive blow in a close clinch, sending the Coleraine man wincing to the canvas.
It’s a first defeat for the Ryan Burnett-trained Boreland in the pro ranks, ‘Barn Barn’ counted out by ref’ Padraig O’Reachtagain and McGrail is now 14-0.
Boreland attempted to pick himself up, but such was the ferocity of the shot he was unable to do so.
“He looked in crazy shape there,” declared Eddie Hearn, who added the Scouser is no longer a “dark horse”
Fight 5 – Molly McCann vs Sylwia Doligala
‘Meatball’ Molly McCann – a distant cousin of Katie Taylor – moved to 5-0 as a pro with a points win over Sylwia Doligala after eight rounds.
The 36-year-old Liverpudlian, whose own ancestors left Ireland for Liverpool in the 1960s, came out to The Auld Triangle, pleasing for the couple of thousand early arrivers.
Doligala, a 31-year-old Pole on a three-win streak, took the bout the distance, but former UFC fighter McCann took victory on cards of 79-73, 80-72, 80-73.
Fight 6 – Taylor Bevan vs Emmet Brennan
Emmet Brennan’s comeback following a long hiatus ended in defeat to Taylor Bevan.
Brennan was on the canvas five times as Bevan took a sixth round stoppage to maintain his flawless record.
The super-middleweight clash was scheduled for 10 rounds, but lasted until 36 seconds of the sixth round when the relentless, hungry Bevan brought about the ending.
Bevan, showing a fondness for the body shot, took the opening verse, forcing Brennan onto the back foot.
Brennan fared better in the second, but perhaps not enough to have shaded the cards.
Coming towards the close of the third, Bevan, a highly-touted Matchroom prospect, floored Brennan with a neat left jab.
At that point, there were 20 seconds left in the round. Brennan rose, dusted himself down, but was soon on the canvas again, Bevan now sensing blood.
Brennan had been out of action for 18 months, his last fight in March 2025 when he beat Kevin Cronin at New York.
The 6-0 Dub, a 2020 Olympian who grew up on the North Strand Road, just 500 yards from Croke Park, where he is a regular follower of the Dublin footballers.
Brennan was on the floor again just as the clapper sounded for the close of the fifth.
The home fighter was assessed by the doctor before the bell rung for the start of the sixth. As he fell for the second time in that round, the fifth time in all, the towel was coming just as the bout was being waved off by referee Padraig O’Reachtagain
Bevan moves to 10-0 after the ninth stoppage win of the Southampton-born, Welsh-based boxer’s career.
Fight 7 – Paddy Donovan vs Tyrone McKenna
Paddy Donovan dominated Tyrone McKenna before earning a win via a fifth round stoppage on the Once Upon A Time card at Croke Park.
In the battle of the southpaws, it was Limerick welter ‘The Real Deal’ who took victory when Paul McCullagh, the referee, called a half two minutes and 33 seconds into the fifth round on the advice of the ringside medic.
Donovan moved to 16-2, 12KOs after a powerful display to outgun his old sparring partner.
McKenna, tough as ever, wasn’t permitted to continue after a bad cut opened atop his right eye.
Trained by former WBO world middle weight champion Andy Lee, Donovan is on the rise and the march again – now surely eyeing some big bouts ahead.
A corking body shot from Donovan – who won the first round – put McKenna on the floor 30 seconds into the second round. On the resumption, Donovan really went to work.
These two have been regular sparring partners over the years, but are at very different chapters of their respective stories now.
Two defeats to Lewis Crocker in Belfast – one a DQ and the other a split decision – briefly derailed his express train quest to become a world contender.
Donovan, though, returned to take a majority decision win over Karen Chukhadzhian in Mannheim in May – a victory that perhaps hasn’t earned the plaudits it deserved.
Donovan is the IBF no. 1 world welter contender and is also next in line for the IBF strap, held by Liam Paro. He proclaimed recently: “This isn’t over! We’re going to continue this story and I will become champion of the world.”
In 2023, McKenna was involved in an absolute war with Crocker, who took a unanimous decision after 10 rounds at the SSE Arena in Belfast. Mckenna beat Dylan Moran last September having been stopped by Harlem Eubank in Brighton six months beforehand.
McKenna entered to a chorus of Oro Sé do Bheatha ’Bhaile with Donovan stirring the attendance when he came into Country Roads. The Limerick ace is certainly angling to get back “to the place I belong”.
This was a fight that Donovan didn’t have to take, but a chance to dance under such a stage was too good to turn down.
Donovan, in the Kronk-style yellow and red trunks, was up on the ropes and taking in the acclaim after a second win in quick succession.
Fight 8 -Dave Allen vs Thomas Carty
The chief support bout was ruled a no contest after Thomas Carty went through the ropes, off the apron and onto the floor in the opening round.
After 82 seconds of the opening round, Carty tumbled into a phalanx of ringside personnel after taking a clip from Dave Allen.
A lengthy wait ensued, Carty was given oxygen and, on the advice of the ringside medic, the Dubliner was ruled unable to continue.
Just a few minutes earlier, the volume roared as ‘Put ‘em Under Pressure’ blared for Carty’s ring walk, a deafening chorus of Olé Olés giving a quick snapshot for what is to come a little later when Katie Taylor emerges from the Hogan Stand.
Southpaw Carty came in her with a 11-1 record, the Phibsboro heavy off the back of a win over German Skobenko at the 3Arena in March after a defeat to Jaiuan Calloway in 2025.
However, his hometown showdown ended in bizarre circumstances.
