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Relentless Ryan O’Rourke reigns supreme in Spain

Relentless Ryan O’Rourke scored an impressive eight rounds points win in Spain tonight.

The young prospect put 16 rounds worth of work into his first eight-rounder, throwing from first to last bell against the durable Israel Munoz in Alcala La Real on April 24.

The member of the ‘father trained fighter’ club was on top for the majority of the eight three minute instalments, worked off a solid jab, showed good variety and workrate.

He passed the eight-round test with flying colours, ticked the southpaw opponent box, and won comfortably on the cards against a tricky and certainly tough opponent.

A fast-paced start saw both busy and both register scoring if not damaging blows. Munoz did show his experience in terms of fighting in bursts but the best work came from the Dub.

The Spanaird kept the Irish prospect honest in the second, using his feet to apply pockets of pressure and pushing O’Rourke back to the ropes on occassion. But again it was the 21-year-old who landed the better shots, finding clever ways to penarate the survival savy southpaws guard.

The pace set and body work put in by O’Rourke looked to be taking its toll in the third. The Spanish fighter was nowhere near as busy and found himself with his back against the ropes on numerous occasions as O’Rourke picked it up. He also got punished anytime he looked to throw a discouraging shot the way of the Conor Slater managed fighters way.

The fourth followed a similar pattern but for a little more grandstanding from the tough Munoz.

The tidy O’Rourke sat down on his shots more in the fifth but despite landing clean with a variety of punches never put a serious dent in the brave Munoz. The journeyman did look out on his feet on occasion. At that stage, a volume stoppage looked like an option, but to his credit anytime the pressure came strong Munoz would fire to let the referee know he was capable and willing to fight on.

O’Rourke maintained the relentless pressure in the sixth, his more experienced opponent was tiring and really feeling the body shots but never showed signs of quit.

Possibly aware O’Rourke was going into the seventh round for the first time in his career Munoz put some shots together in the penultimate round. Indeed, he backed the fresh faces youngster up on occasion but didn’t do enough to win the round, with O’Rourke still busier and cleaner in his work.

Much to his credit ‘The Silent Assassin’ looked to close the show in the eight. He did manage to flirt with the stoppage letting lethal lefts lose, be it hooks up or downstairs or a switch-hitting backhand. However, although shaken the heavily tattooed hard man never going to hit the canvas and O’Rourke had to settle for another points victory.

The win see’s O’Rourke improve to 7-0 and Munoz slip to 3-18.

Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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