DUBLIN DELIVERS!

OUR ST PATRICK’S Day weekend special in Dublin on Saturday delivered in every way. A full house at the nation’s main arena, an incredible atmosphere, exciting fights and new stars emerging.

It was always going to be a good one, but this exceeded expectations and my admiration and appreciation goes to the fighters and the fans who turned out for making it such a night to remember.

The main event, between Anto Cacace and Jazza Dickens, was always going to be more of a nip and tuck type affair, with it being fought by two such wily and experienced campaigners.

Anto’s remarkable run continues and he is now a two-time world champion, having overcome Joe Cordina, Josh Warrington, Leigh Wood and now Jazza. All world champions in recent times.

Now holder of the WBA world super featherweight title, Anto will want to be part of even bigger occasions and potentially unifications moving forward.

The star of the show was probably the local boy Pierce O’Leary, fighting at home in Dublin as a professional for the first time. He personally sold bundles of tickets, as he always said he would, for his clash with Maxi Hughes and he did a job on his experienced opponent, who came in at fairly late notice following the withdrawal of Mark Chamberlain.

Pierce perfectly illustrated the attraction of Dublin as a promotional destination and, with him closing in on a world title shot, the big nights will get bigger and even more noisy.

We’ve now got such a rich pool of talent for the Irish people to get behind and Steven Cairns showed why he will be a major part of forthcoming events, along with Eoghan Lavin. Both stepped up significantly and both impressed.

Maybe even more exciting for the locals is the emergence of exceptional and elite young talents in Bobbi Flood and Adam Olaniyan, who made successful professional debuts on Saturday.

It is obviously early days, but these two boys have got champion written all over them.

They operate in marquee divisions - middleweight and heavyweight respectively - and I fully expect them to become a big part of a major driving force that will lead to a boxing boom in Ireland over the forthcoming years.