Dylan boxes his way to land title in super fashion

Dylan boxes his way to land title in super fashion

29 February 2012

PEGASUS ABC’s Dylan Duffy exceeded all expectations when he won the Antrim Amateur title at 57k, and will now fight in the All-Ireland Championships in Dublin on March 2.

Unfortunately, young Pierce Crane missed out on qualification for Dublin when he was pipped at the post by Holy Trinity’s Conor Burns at 52k.

Duffy, a 15 year-old southpaw stylist, was paired against Darren Pollack of St Agnes ABC. Pollack, the winner of four All-Ireland titles and voted the best young boxer in Ireland last year, was expected to be a comfortable winner, but Dylan had other ideas.

The local lad produced a fantastic display of boxing in all three rounds to bewilder the Belfast boxer in a cracking contest and outboxed and outfought his opponent in every department.

A superb performance from Dylan who moved into the final where he met Colm Markey of St. Paul’s ABC.

This was the same Colm Markey who beat Duffy 12 months ago in the final of the NI Girls’ & Boys’ Clubs’ Championships.

This was Dylan’s chance of revenge. The first round Markey swarmed all over the Pegasus boxer, landing powerful hooks to the body and took a healthy 4 points to 1 lead.

he second round saw Dylan get back to his skilful boxing, ramming home some hurtful left crosses to get himself back into the contest and won that round 2-0. Trailing 4-3 going into the final round, it was all to fight for.

Young Dylan had to dig deep, and at times it wasn’t pretty, but he battled on doggedly landing the more telling shots. At the end of three absorbing rounds it went to the judges and the score was 6 points each.

It then went to the second countback and Dylan was judged the champion by a score of 45 points to 35. Sweet revenge against the tough Markey.

Fourteen year-old Crane was matched against Holy Family boxer Jack Osbourne.

A cagey first round from both lads saw Crane landing the more telling shots to take a narrow lead.

The second round saw Crane take a more commanding lead as he landed some long right hand punches against his shorter opponent to go into the final round 8 points to 4.

The final round saw Crane push further ahead as he scored the more telling blows on the rapidly tiring Belfast boxer to win by a wide points decision and get himself into the final where he met Holy Trinity’s Conor Burns, winner of last year’s All-Ireland title at 48 kilos.

Crane, boxing on the back foot, trying to to pick off the more aggressive Burns, found this a tall order and despite a late surge in the last round, lost out on points to a very talented opponent.         

Also boxing for Pegasus on March 2 are Michael Flanagan, Gareth Pollack, Curtis Ward and Paul Ward in the Crossgar War Memorial Hall.

Eastside ABC are hosting the show and tickets are available from Marty Kayes and James Reynolds, club coaches, and should be a cracking night.