On This Day: June 27th
1979: Derry’s Charlie Nash outpointed Frenchman Andre Holyk over twelve rounds to win the vacant European lightweight title in front of a home crowd at the Templemore Sports Complex.
1972: Newry’s ‘Dangerous’ Danny McAlinden caused a shock at Villa Park when he knocked out champion Jack Bodell in the second round to claim the British and Commonwealth heavyweight titles.
1953: In a Belfast derby at the Ulster Hall, John Kelly forced Bunty Doran into an eleventh round retirement and claim his Irish and Northern Irish bantamweight titles. Kelly would win the European title in his next fight, while the bout would be 31 year old Doran’s last.
1953: On the same card, Ricky McCulloch outpointed Gerry Smythe over twelve to win the Northern Irish lightweight title.
2015: Michael O’Reilly upset home favourite Xaybula Musalov to win middleweight gold at the inaugural European Games in Baku. The Portlaoise fighter didn’t drop a round en-route to the final, defeating Croat Sanjin Pol Vrgoc, Montenegrin Emir Sabotic, and Slovak Aljaz Venko, before receiving a walkover from Russian Maxim Koptyakov in the semi-finals.
2009: Katie Taylor defeated Bulgarian Denitsa Eliseyeva (8:1) to claim her second successive EU gold. En-route to the final in Pazardzhik, Bulgaria, the Bray star defeated Italian Giacoma Cordio (14:1), and Frenchwoman Cindy Orain (11:2).
