On This Day: June 8th
1985: Barry McGuigan ripped the WBA featherweight title off Panamanian legend Eusebio Pedrosa at a packed out Loftus Road in London. The Clones Cyclone won a fifteen round unanimous decision (149-139, 148-138 & 147-140), knocking Pedrosa down in the fourth and staggering him in the ninth. The Central American was looking to make his twentieth defence of the title but was out-fought, out-thought, and out-boxed by the unifying Monaghan star in front of a 26,000-strong crowd.
2013: There was double gold for Ireland in Belarus at the European Championships with John Joe Nevin and Jason Quigley taking top prize in Minsk. Break-out star Quigley roared into the final with wins over Arbi Tscherkajev of Austria, Germany’s Stefan Haertel, and reigning Ukrainian World champion Evhen Khytrov. In the decider, Donegal’s Quigley claimed a split-decision win over Romania’s Bogdan Juratoni.
Nevin was similarly impressive, easing past Turkish fighter Selcuk Eker, Hungary’s Krisztian Nagy, and Russian star Vladimir Nikitin, before defeating Mykola Butsenko of Ukraine in the final to win his final amateur medal.
2010: Derry’s Tyrone McCullagh and Dubliner Kenny Egan claimed European bronze at the 38th edition of the European Championships in Moscow. ‘White Chocolate’ McCullagh had cruised past Moldovan Petru Apostol in the Last 16, and the awkward featherweight grinded out a 6:3 over Armenia’s Azat Hovhanesyan to take Bronze. The Inishowen man would lose to England’s Iain Weaverin the semi final.
Neilstown light heavy Egan defeated Italian Simone Fiori and Albanian Aleksander Ramo en-route to the quarter finals and beat Ainar Karlson of Estonia to claim his second European bronze medal. In the semi finals the Olympic silver medal winner would lose out to France’s Abdelkader Bouhenia.
