Hyland claims IBF crown
15 March 2009 – By Mark Doyle
Patrick Hyland’s career continues to progress at an extremely encouraging pace, with ‘Pajo’ claiming the vacant IBF international super-featherweight title with a comprehensive points victory over Carlos Guevara in Dorchester, Massachusetts on Saturday night.
Guevara proved a tough, durable and robust opponent for Hyland and the Nicaraguan repeatedly tried to take the fight to the 25-year-old Dubliner.
However, Hyland coped quite comfortably with everything his game foe had to offer and his impressive hand speed ultimately decided the fight in his favour, with the well-supported Irishman eventually getting the nod on all three judges scorecards (98-92, 98-92, 99-91) after an intriguing ten-round battle.
Hyland, who also holds the Irish title at featherweight, improves to 16-0 (8KOs) and will be doubtless hoping that his latest triumph advances his claims for a European title shot by the end of the year.
It was a good night for the Irish in action in Massachusetts, with Gary O’Sullivan also triumphing, albeit by disqualification, in his clash with Jimmy Leblanc.
It quickly became evident that hometown favourite Leblanc was way out of his depth and, in his desperation to survive, he repeatedly tried to tie O’Sullivan up in clinches every time the undefeated Corkonian advanced.
Indeed, Leblanc had already been docked three points for excessive holding when the referee somewhat unsurprisingly decided to call a halt to the contest in the fourth round.
