BIG TIME boxing hits Waterford on Saturday, December 7 as Tyrone McKenna and Dylan Moran headline a 16-fight card. That number may drop gently as the week goes on, but hopefully most of the key players will make it through. It’s been a while since a show of this magnitude has rolled into the island’s unconventional battlegrounds.
Backed by state broadcaster RTE, Brian Peters had previously ventured from the main hubs of Belfast and Dublin, giving matches in Magherafelt and Letterkenny for Paul McCloskey, Limerick for Andy Lee and Willie Casey and a mini-tour across Bernard Dunne’s country as he rehabilitated after Kiko.
Since then, due mainly to non-boxing gigs, highlighted by the Boxing Association of Ireland’s reluctance to play ball for a while while things were settled, shows south of the border have peaked.
Back at Waterford’s SETU Arena, consistently on the brink of retirement, Tyrone McKenna keeps crawling back for ‘one last job’. Dylan Moran is a good guy who has bounced back from tough losses to Denis Okoth and Florian Marku. Bouncing around the rings of Austria, Germany, the US and the UK, Moran’s latest outing was a smash for Owen O’Neill’s confidence building. The last time Waterford hosted a good boxing event, Moran beat Argentina’s Mauro Godoy by stoppage.
He now faces McKenna, who has lost three of his last four, two by stoppage, including a recent rematch with Mohamed Mimoune. Conlan Boxing has partnered with Florida-based Pro Box TV to deliver these Irish shows.
Tyrone McKenna
The first took place in Belfast on November 1 and featured a slugfest main event between Padraig McCrory and Colombia’s Leonard Castillo. If McKenna and Moran can recreate something similar, it will be a night to remember.
“With the event it’s going to be I thought me against Tyrone McKenna is the only fight worth it. The fans are going to be the real winners here,” shouted Moran, who once traveled the world as a kickboxer.
“I have the utmost respect for Tyrone McKenna, he is an Irish boxing legend and it would be an honor to share the ring with him. What better place to do it than Waterford? I’ve always said I want to put on big fights and there’s no bigger one than me and Tyrone. We know what Tyrone brings, I know what I bring and the fans will be the real winners.”
