Unknown Irish Pro Debutant Kicks Off 2022 with Vietnam Brawl

A mystery Monaghan fighter kicked off 2022 in bizarre and brawling fashion.

One Sean Anthony Duffy made an out-of-the-blue nearly entirely under-the-radar debut in Vietnam on Sunday afternoon.

The fighter, of whom very little is known, took on local super middleweight, Van Hieu Pham over four rounds on a Trigger Promotions card.

The fight was the first Irish interest bout of the new year and was a clash worthy of a lot more interest. It was high entertainment if not the highest of quality throughout.

Van Hieu Pham, 23, had a good third round, an entertaining second may have been close, yet the despite the fact Duffy appeared to win the first and fourth wide, he suffered a 40-36, 39-37, 39-37 points defeat.

The 31-year-old Irish fighter looked in control early in the fight. He found a comfortable range, jabbed well and dominated the first two minutes. Full with confidence and seemingly eager to inflict maximum damage rather than take maximum points from the round, Duffy held his feet more in the last minute. That allowed his opponent to load up and land clean on a number of occasions but the debutant still did enough to win the round.

Duffy continued to push forward in the second stanza and all but gave Van Hieu rope burn, although the local did find success with loaded flurries in an entertaining round.

The home fighter had his best round in the third but again the majority of his success came via sporadic flurries thrown from the ropes.

The fourth appeared to be won by the Irish fighter, he continued to press forward, was hurting his foe and with less coming back appeared to win another round quite clear.

However, the referee and two scoring judges scored the fight in favour of Van Hieu as he pushed his record to 2-0, Duffy’s slate now reads 0-1.