CARL MCDONALD IS the BUI Irish super-bantamweight champion after emerging a unanimous-decision winner over near neighbour Dylan McDonagh in an enthralling battle at Good Counsel GAA Club, Drimnagh.
McDonald had his hand raised on scores of 98-93, 97-93 and 98-95.
Walking to the ring for what had long been billed ‘The Battle of Jobstown’, McDonald, 29, wore the same golden trunks with a blue trim — the colours of his old club, Golden Cobra — that he had donned when he edged McDonagh on a split decision in the 2015 Intermediate semi-finals.
McDonagh, slightly the naturally smaller man and four years McDonald’s senior, wore black with a silver trim.
The younger man tried to impose his will early but found, doubtless not to his surprise, that his Jobstown neighbour was unwilling to give an inch. A compelling if messy first stanza was possibly thieved by McDonagh with an explosion of quality as he briefly backed McDonald into the opposite corner, but in truth it was a pick-’em opener.
The sophomore round crackled not briefly but throughout, a close encounter of the violent kind halfway through it nearly taking the roof off the GAA hall at Good Counsel. McDonald’s attempts to buldoze McDonagh weren’t fruitless but the latter’s tidy footwork kept his assailant guessing.
Carl McDonald is your BUI Irish super-bantamweight champion after edging near neighbour Dylan McDonagh in an absolutely thrilling #BattleOfJobstown. What a night at #CelticClash7 — fair play to @LoveIrishBoxing and all involved. pic.twitter.com/aqohM7huDn
— Gavan Casey (@GavanCasey) November 24, 2018
Both enjoyed their moments in a loud third, too — McDonagh starting well with an assault against the ropes but McDonald perhaps edging it with the greater quantity of work, some neat jabs and a stronger finish.
The fourth was an odd round in that it was almost a non-event such was the regularity with which both fighters became tied up at centre-ring, but the final minute saw them trade with abandon, McDonagh shading four fleeting but thrilling exchanges.
McDonald hit a major speed bump in the fifth when he had a point deducted for use of his head, but in an attempt to spare himself dropping a 10-8 round at a crucial juncture, upped the ante just enough to save a 9-9 — an explosive attack to the body driving McDonagh back towards the ropes.
The temperature having risen to almost unbearable, round six was a barnburner: both men let loose whenever their hands were freed, and frankly you’d be lying if you claimed it could have been scored decisively either way. The feeling at ringside through six was that it was just about even on rounds, in which case McDonald’s point deduction was on course to prove crucial.
McDonagh seemed to stun McDonald ever so slightly with a venomous attack upstairs early in the seventh, but the former Golden Cobra man roared back into the round with a series of his own assaults, his surplus physical strength somewhat conspicuous as he almost willed McDonagh backwards.
McDonald earned the eighth on the front foot, but he caught a huge break a round later: this time it was McDonagh who was deducted a point for incessant holding, a verdict which sent McDonald’s half of Jobstown, sitting — nay, standing — opposite the media seats absolutely spare.
McDonald duly poured forward in a bid to copper-fasten the round, and likely did so in the final seconds, pinning McDonagh in his own corner and cutting loose at close quarters. McDonagh, to his credit, gave almost as good as he got during a pulsating exchange, but couldn’t quite get out of dodge as he might have earlier in the contest.
The final round was as memorable as they come in Irish title terms. Again, McDonagh found himself backed into his own corner but this time, he pivoted off his left foot out of danger having actually enjoyed the better of a muzzled trade-off. He planted a sweet straight right hand onto McDonald’s whiskers only to take one in response a mere second later, two shots which drew raucous roars from either side of the ring.
At the final bell, those roars amalgamated to create an ear-splitting chorus. After celebrations and commiserations, everyone headed back to Jobstown.
There will never be pre-fight entertainment like this again. #CelticClash7 pic.twitter.com/Rj0mbLU2q9
— Gavan Casey (@GavanCasey) November 24, 2018
A rousing four-song set by Christy Dingham raised the curtain for the main portion of the card, and while the Aslan frontman was a tough act to follow, the evening’s remaining protagonists didn’t half do their best to eclipse him.
In the co-main event, Keane McMahon obliterated Serguey Stefanov, dropping the Bulgarian journeyman three times en route to a first-round TKO.
If that was a formality, the fight prior was anything but.
After a six-round thriller, it was the previously undefeated Martin Quinn who stormed out of the ring in disgust having found himself on the wrong side of a 58-57 decision loss to the teak-tough Karl Kelly.
In victory, the latter conceivably saved his career as a relevant fighter in the higher end of the domestic game, but despite his own stellar display, most ringside — including his own corner, who barked orders to seek a knockout late on — were surprised by the result.
As both men promised, the bout became a war almost instantaneously. Quinn had landed the cleaner and more thudding blows through three-and-a-bit exhilarating rounds but found himself in No Man’s Land as the fourth approached; Kelly trapped him in a neutral corner and bounced his bonce back and forth like a child might a balloon, but the teak-tough Crumlin man saw out the round to earn his minute’s respite.
He recovered well to regain some momentum to begin the fourth, but it was Kelly who again finished the stronger, pinning Quinn against the ropes once more — although on this occasion Quinn did well to block most of the fusillade fired in his direction seconds prior to the bell.
The fifth was a verse of two halves: Chasing the fight, Kelly imposed himself early and applied pressure on the front foot, but Quinn fired back stylishly and effectively during the final 90 seconds, snapping the bobbing Monkstown man’s head back with a series of clawing hooks and straight right hands.
The sixth was a firefight but such was the nature of the bout to that point, neither retained the power to take the other out. Ultimately, Quinn boxed well enough to nick it, but Kelly’s pressure may have told in the eyes of the sole arbitrator.
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