American debut wins for Browne and O’Rourke
Tony Browne and Ryan O’Rourke enjoyed successful American debuts last night.
The O’Rourke’s Gym duo fought under the Star Boxing banner for the first time appearing on a card in Schenectady at The Rivers Casino.
Both Dub’s registered points wins on a bill topped by a WBC Continental America’s Cruiserweight Title fight between Simone Frederici between Lyubmoyr Pinchuck.
Browne became the third Irish fighter to defeat former MMA fighter, Leandro Silva, indeed he is the third Irish fighter to get rounds off the game Brazilian.
Like fellow former light heavyweight amateurs of note Matthew Tinker and Joe Ward, super middleweight Browne outpointed the former UFC competitor.
The 27-year-old went eight against Silva and got his hand raised to put some distance between himself and a surprise defeat to Chico Kwasi in Belgium last summer.
O’Rourke whitewashed Lyon’s Faycal Rezkallah over six. The 22-year-old finally got the chance to build on his impressive win over Wilson Mendes and made the most of it by defeating a French fighter who lost only once in seven fights.
The ‘Silent Assassin’ made some degree of noise with a 60-54, 60-54, 60-54 shut out point win
Speaking before Saturday’s show promoter Joe DeGuardia said: “We expect the Irish guys, Tony and Ryan, to be very well received by the Capital Region; they embody the areas fighting spirit; we have been waiting two years to have them come over; this is the right place for them to debut.”
Browne’s record no wins 6-1, while O’Rourke pushes close to double figures as an 8-0 fighter. Silva’s record is now 3-6 and Rezkallah is now a 6-2-1 fighter.
