DESTINATION DUBLIN

IT WILL BE an enormous pleasure on Saturday evening to be back promoting in the great city of Dublin, especially with it being the weekend of St Patrick’s Day.

The fans will be out in full force and tickets for this one were snapped up in a matter of days, continuing a welcome and exciting trend for boxing in Britain and Ireland. Not to mention Germany!

The appetite for a quality night of top level boxing is really showing itself over recent times and it offers a strong indication over the health of the sport. People point to big characters retiring and boxing being in some sort of transition. But, for me, the most important thing is always talent and we’ve got that in spades at so many levels.

If I look at just this year so far from a Queensberry perspective. We sold out in Germany with Agit Kabayel, it was pretty much a packed out house in Liverpool for Nick Ball and the other local talent, the 3Arena will be full this weekend and the delayed Magnificent 7 show will fill the biggest arena in Europe.

Then we’ve got the Glasgow show on April 17 at the OVO Hydro that will be a big seller and then Tony Yoka headlining in Paris against Lawrence Okolie, which will also be a very hot ticket.

I am not just putting a promotional twist on things. Tickets are literally flying out at a rate not seen for a long time and when this happens it is always a win-win. One successful show with a huge turnout almost always leads to another one and another one, which creates huge opportunities for fighters from the particular region and the fans know they can rely on a regular staple of live boxing.

This won’t be a one and done for us in Dublin. Yes, the headliners are well into their thirties, but look below this and you will see that we are in the process of building something special.

Pierce O’Leary is still a young man at 26 and he is a hugely popular figure in his home city and I am very excited by our two debut-makers on Saturday, who are exceptional and elite talents.

Middleweight Bobbi Flood and heavyweight Adam Olaniyan represent the bright future of Irish boxing.

It could probably be debated long into the night, but I have heard many good judges describe this card as, top to bottom, the strongest ever to be staged in Ireland. This is some tribute to the fighters on the show and the reaction when the card was announced was incredible.

I might be biased, but I love this card because it is stacked with fights with the potential to deliver fireworks and the young talents are stepping up too and are determined to put their marker down.

The top of the bill has captured the imagination of fight fans because they know what they are going to get from Jazza Dickens and Anto Cacace fighting for the WBA world title at super featherweight.

Both men are enjoying a late career bloom and, quite honestly, it couldn’t happen to two nicer blokes who fully deserve what has come their way.

Pierce O’Leary has been on at us, pretty much since we signed him up, to be showcased here in his home city of Dublin. Now his wish comes true and he is fighting for an IBO world super lightweight title against a great campaigner and former IBO lightweight world title holder in Maxi Hughes.

It was disappointing that his proposed clash with Mark Chamberlain had to be called off, but in Maxi Hughes, Pierce will still face his toughest career challenge to date.

We’ve got another IBO world title fight for everyone to feast on between another hugely popular Dubliner in Jono Carroll and he goes up against young Belfast star Colm Murphy at super featherweight.

If you aren’t one of the lucky ones with a ticket for the 3Arena, make sure to tune in on DAZN from 7pm.