Dublin reflections

FIRST AND FOREMOST, when it comes to reflecting on Saturday’s thrilling night in Dublin, it goes without saying that the thoughts of ourselves at Queensberry and all boxing fans remain with Lee Reeves.

Lee was hospitalised following what was an exciting fight with Gary Cully, in which he suffered a final round KO. He gave so much in the fight and might well have been ahead prior to the knockdowns.

He has now undergone surgery and is receiving the best care. We pray for him to make a full recovery.

The dangers of this sort of injury, unfortunately, cannot fully be mitigated against in our sport. Along with the practical provisions we put in place from a safety and medical perspective, just as important is responsible matchmaking.

Lee and Gary are of a similar age of over 30 and their experience is comparable, plus it was an all-Irish rivalry and a natural match to make. No matter how many calculations you make, all fights come with risk that fighters are well aware of.

What does frustrate me sometimes is when people, many who should know better, demand 50-50 or best vs the best matches for young fighters who are simply not ready for it.

A career in professional boxing is a process, a journey, where you pick up strength, experience and knowhow along the way. There is a reason why new pros start off in four rounders and then graduate up to championship distance.

If you were to start slinging teenage or early twenties fighters straight into wars you would not only seriously endanger their health, you also wouldn’t have many fighters left to match.

It is about building and development and it always has been. If anything, fighters move much quicker these days. Back in the day they used to say it was 20 for learning and 20 for earning.

We all love seeing a right old ding-dong in there between the best fighters, but they have got to be ready for it.

Take the main event on Saturday, which doubtless will be a strong contender for Fight of the Year. It was an absolute thriller.

The key to this is that both Mark Chamberlain and Pierce O’Leary were ready for it. They both had a strong grounding and made professional debuts at the end of 2018 and mid-2019 respectively.

You can ruin careers and potentially health by jumping in too deep, too soon. We have a responsibility to fighters and it is one I will never abdicate.

Royston Barney-Smith started out with us at the age of 18 and now, over four years on and 17 fights in, he is maturing into the genuine talent we always believed he would be.

He stepped up again against the vastly experienced Reece Bellotti and showed real ring craft in the way he went about his work. He is winning titles and learning more and more as he goes along. The way it should be.

I would like to pay tribute to Reece too, a great professional who is as tough as old boots and a credit to himself and the sport.

Both Steven Cairns and Ben Fail executed fifth round stoppages to further their cases for major title contention, while the bumper crowd in Dublin were also treated to seeing three of the finest young talents currently operating in the sport.

It is early days, but you can see that John Joe Carrigan, Bobbi Flood and Adam Olaniyan are going to become exceptional champions in time. They were elite amateurs and we will steer them through the professional ranks in the right way and ensure that they fulfil their obvious potential.

It was also lovely to have the company of three former champs in Naz, Steve Collins and Alex Arthur on Saturday. Naz was there for the professional debut of his eldest son Sami, who put his opponent down twice on his way to a shutout decision. Alex was in town for his son Machlan, having his second pro fight and he also had his man down twice. And Steve was there lending his support to Pierce O’Leary, who he has got right behind.

It can’t be bad having a Hamed and an Arthur on the same card before you even get to the main fights!