Byrne and Kavanagh win in USA

18 May 2010 – By Jonny Stapleton

Wild Card’s Irish ace’s Jamie Kavanagh and Dean Byrne both enjoyed impressive stoppage wins in American over the weekend.

The Freddie Roach trained former Crumlin amateurs were fighting under different circumstances and on separate cards but produced the same result. Golden Boys Kavanagh took the short route to victory on his pro debut stopping William Ware on the undercard of Amir Khans WBA defence in Madison Square Garden on Saturday.

The Spainish speaking Kavanagh, who looks set for a big future in the game, stopped his opponent with just 1:39 seconds gone in the second round. Welterweight Byrne, who is considering a pro offer from Gary Shaw, registered his eleventh successive victory by finishing off a stubborn Justo Sanchez in five rounds on a show in Chumash Casino in California.

Irish Lighting Byrne showed no signs of ring rust despite being out of the ring for over a year and dominated the fight from start to premature finish.Both are looking to get back into the ring very soon and Kavanagh is already back in the Wild Card gym training.

To tell you the truth I was a bit anxious and tried too hard in the first round, 19-year-old Kavanagh said.

But after that I was letting lose and finding the target and I stopped him. The crowd was great. They gave me a great support especially when they heard I was from Dublin. I am hoping to get another fight soon. It felt great to be in the ring.

Byrne is also keen to get back into the ring as soon as possible. It was great to get back in the ring after all this time, he said.

The rust is off now and I am ready to fight again. Sanchez was a bit awkward. He held a lot and kept dropping his head. But I set him up in fourth and he took a lot of punishment before it was stopped in the fifth. I am happy with my performance. He looked like he had been in a 12 round fight after the second bell. He was badly cut and bruised. Hopefully lightning will strike again very soon.