By: Sean Crose
“He’s got a bit of a bee in his bonnet this time around.” So Mark Chamberlain told the BBC. He was referring of course to Pierce O’Leary his opponent on Saturday in Dublin. The two men were supposed to meet earlier in the year but a physical condition kept Chamberlain away from the ring until this weekend. Intentionally or not O’Leary was not taking kindly to Chamberlain not facing him months ago. Chamberlain however appeared rather easy going about the whole thing.
“Boxing’s a dangerous sport,” he said, “even when you are at full strength and if my team let me go into the biggest fight of my life after what I had been through, then they would not be there for my best interests.”
Chamberlain made it clear that his stepping aside was a serious decision that wasn’t to be taken lightly. “I had an ambulance sent to my house and was told to get onto a course of antibiotics, either way the fight’s been offered to me for a second time so here we go again.”
Saturday’s fight which went down in O’Leary’s hometown of Dublin, was the main event of a card that was aired live on DAZN streaming service as well as on standard American broadcasting. At stake was the IBO junior welterweight title which O’Leary had in his possession. Suffice it to say Chamberlain wanted to be the one who had possession of the title at the end of the night.
Heading into the ring both fighters found that the crowd was explosive. Of course it was explosive for HomeTown hero, O’Leary. Chamberlain would have to fight the crowd as well as his opponent if he hoped to emerge victorious. Naturally O’Leary wasn’t keen to disappoint his countrymen by losing to Britain’s Chamberlain. It was unquestionably a high stakes event for each man. With that being said few likely imagined the fight ending up being the instant classic that it was.
Chamberlain let his presence be felt in front of the Dublin crowd very soon into the fight by dropping his man. His face covered with blood O’Leary fought bravely but he ended up going down again and it frankly looked like it was going to be a very long, very painful night for the defending titlist. Yet the man kept fighting and fighting and fighting. Then as the battle ground on O’Leary actually put Chamberlain to the mat with a cutting body shot. Chamberlain survived but it was a war up until the very end and that end was explosive.
Unloading with a deadly clean and accurate combination Chamberlain put O’Leary to the mat for the final time. The referee will probably be accused of stopping the fight too soon by some, but he did the right thing. There’s so much punishment at fighter can take before that punishment becomes terrible. Besides there’s a rematch calls for these two. Here’s hoping they’ll do it again provided they don’t really hurt themselves.
Last weekend, Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua, and Errol Spence all under performed. This weekend in a quiet card in Ireland, two little known junior welterweights put on the kind of show fans love. Something to think about, especially in an era when even average matches are presented on pay-per-view. We don’t need to have enormous spectacles in order to have good fights. All we need really is good fights. The truth is this past Saturdays night of boxing at least the portion that took place in the British isles. Was more fun than last weekend’s fights featuring Big names big dollars and large amounts of eyeballs.
