On This Day: June 11th
2005: ‘The Clones Collossus’ Kevin McBride shocked the boxing World by defeating and sending Mike Tyson into retirement. Putting his size advantage to good use, the 1992 Olympian bullied the faded ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ into a sixth round retirement on the PPV card in Washington.
1992: After five succesful defences, Dave Boy McCauley lost his IBF flyweight World title following a disputed points loss to Colombia’s Rodolfo Blanco, who the Larne boxer had beaten two years previous. The close unanimous decision defeat (112-115, 113-114 x2) in Bilbao was McAuley’s final fight and an especially difficult result to stomach as he had had a fight with the legendary Michael Carbajal lined up.
2010: Paul McCloskey scored a stunning eleventh round knockout in a tough fight against Giuesseppi Lauri at the Kings Hall to defend his European light welterweight title for the first time. The Dungiven man took advantage of Lauri’s remonstrations to score a huge right hook and heavily floor the Italian.
2010: On McCloskey’s undercard, Stephen Haughian challenged Scotsman Kevin McIntyre for the vacant Celtic welterweight title, but lost out to the former British champion from Paisley via unanimous decision (97-94, 97-93,98-93).
1947: Belfast’s Bunty Doran scored a first round knockout over Dublin champion Joe Boy Collins to claim the Irish bantamweight title at the Kings Hall.
1938: Jack Mussein knocked Jack Bunting out in the eight round of a Belfast derby to win the vacant Northern Irish bantamweight title at The Oval.
2010: Kilkenny’s Darren O’Neill defeated Mladen Manev (6:0) to secure a silver medal in the middleweight division at the European Championships in Moscow. O’Neill defeated Romanian Ronald Gavril (4:2), and Britain’s Anthony Ogogo (10:1), before edging Ukrainian star Sergiy Derevyanchenko (7:6) in the quarter finals. The Paulstown puncher, who is now aiming to qualify for a second Olympics up at heavyweight, lost in his final to Russia’s Artem Chebotarev (16:7).
