Tyrone’s Teo takes the Bragging Rights

After a compulsive battle Teo Alin leaves the Devenish Complex with the BUI Celtic Super Featherweight title. 

He won by unanimous decision, 78-74, 77-75 and 80-72, the latter card harsh on Lee Gormley who did contribute a lot to a really entertaining fight.

The opening half of the fight did see East Timor born Alin dominate, and in the first round he demonstrated some of the attributes that would win him the belt. 

Essentially he was much more crisp and clinical than his opponent, showing good hand speed and footwork.

Again in the second he was clearly the slicker operator, and he found Gormley a much easier target to find. To Gormley’s credit he was continually looking to bring the fight to his opponent, but he was being repelled and punished. 

The tempo had been high early on, but it did dip a bit in the third, with Alin still landing the better, more eye-catching shots. 

He probably did enough to take the fourth as well, but he had put a lot into the first half of the fight. Could the effort be sustained, if required?

Gormley was still very much in the fight, and a cut appeared on the face of Alin in the fifth, offering a ray of hope. It was a close round, which Gormley may have done enough to take. 

Buoyed by that, he also dominated the first half of the sixth, and he certainly had some momentum now.

The seventh was a fairly close affair. Alin started the round the better, but Gormley did come back with better shots towards the latter stages, which could have swung it his way.

It had been very entertaining and became even more so in the final round. 

Gormley had more to gain than lose and he went pursuing Alin, but ended up taking shots from the more clinical fighter. The final minute was hugely dramatic, with serious exchanges and far more care for attack than defence. Several times the two were separated and immediately sought to land as heavy shots as they could, before becoming entangled once more, and repeating the process. 

The crowd lapped it up, a great ending to the night of fights.

An entertaining fight, a brilliant final round, great heart from a gallant loser and the right decision from the judges. A lot to like for a neutral observer.

To be fair to Alin it couldn’t be argued that he wasn’t the superior force on the night and he fully deserved his moment.