Dunne Claims Title With Emphatic KO

On a memorable day for Irish sport, Bernard Dunne capped it all off by stopping Ricardo Cordoba of Panama in the eleventh round to claim the WBA Super bantamweight title.

Dunne, a heavy underdog with the bookies, surprised everyone by having his hand raised at the end of a toe-to-toe war with the champion. After a cagey start, Dunne adopted the required tactics to get in and out without getting hurt by Cordoba, and occasionally landing himself aswell.

In the third round Dunne delivered a huge left hook which sent Cordoba backwards and then straight to the canvas. Following the count, Dunne had 12 seconds to finish him off, but was unable to do so. Cordoba came out in the next round seemingly unfazed by what had just happened and boxed cautiously before a cut from a clash of heads swung the fight in his way. Blood was impairing Dunne’s vision, but luckily never got to the stage that the cut suffered against Faccio did. Dunne then endured a nightmare fifth round, where a Cordoba flurry that culminated with a huge combination sent him to the canvas. Dunne tried to tie up, but found himself on the canvas again following another Cordoba flurry. Dunne looked very unsteady and now had a swollen lip to put up with as well as an increasingly bloody cut. The round ended with Cordoba battering Dunne against the ropes which would surely have resulted in a stoppage, only for the Irishman to be saved by the bell.

To his credit, Dunne avoided Cordoba’s lengthy shots and even managed to open a cut over the champion’s eye in the sixth round. Round 7 represented a huge turnaround, where the challenger ended the slugfest on top, and this trend continued in the eighth where Dunne seemed to be catching Cordoba at will. Coming off his stool for the ninth round, Cordoba looked tired but was still willing to trade. By the end of the tenth Cordoba brought himself back into it, opening another cut on Dunne’s face (this one on his eye) and went on to finish the round strongly.

Now looking even more fatigued, Cordoba seemed content to take the eleventh at a slower pace, the only problem was Dunne wasn’t. Any fears of Dunne tiring in the later rounds were put to bed as he became the aggressor and the writing was on the wall for the Panamanian after Dunne landed a big left hook. A quick flurry sent Cordoba to the ropes, and he promptly found himself flat on his back. Bravely making it to his feet, he was clearly in an awful state before Dunne had him down again, this time on his backside in a neutral corner. The fight might have been stopped there and then, commentator Jimmy Magee thought so anyway, and the man was proved to be right after the staggering Cordoba was let fight until Dunne landed a left that gave him bad whiplash. The second he hit the canvas it was over. The time was 2 minutes 59 seconds of round 11.

Cordoba was taken to hospital as Dunne celebrated being Ireland’s first world champion in over a decade. A fight for the ages with a happy ending from an Irish perspective. Dunne survived a horrid round five and fatigued less than his opponent, so huge credit must go to his coaching team. His overall performance was brilliant, and the new WBA Super bantamweight champion is a far cry from the fighter blitzed in 86 seconds by Kiko Martinez just under 18 months ago. Rendall Munroe beware! In fact every fighter in this division beware.

Written by Eoin Cook