Big Bang Casey Captures European Title

Willie Casey forced a fourth round stoppage of Paul Hyland to win the European Super Bantamweight title in only his 11th fight. Hyland will be bitterly disappointed this morning because he never really turned up for the fight. He has by far the better boxing skills but he got his tactics completely wrong by deciding to stand toe to toe with a much bigger puncher. After an exciting first round with both fighters landing good combinations Casey began to outwork Hyland and landed some vicious body shots. I have no idea what Hyland was attempting to do in round three but he got caught on the ropes with Casey unloading on him while he threw very little back.
I felt that if Hyland stayed away from Casey and just used the jab without trading he could win this on points. That never looked likely to happen though as Hyland proved ridiculously easy to hit. In round 4, Hyland was caught on the ropes again and came under a sustained attack from Casey. The referee stepped in as Hyland was offering no resistance. I felt the ref was a little to quick to stop the fight but a telling factor is that Hyland didn't complain.
Casey must now defend his belt against Kiko Martinez, in a fight which should be a real classic between two power punchers. Casey isn't the greatest boxer but his punch power could take him far enough. He demonstrated a little more head movement and his switch attack between body and head was impressive. He certainly won't fear Martinez but he won't be able to just walk through him as he did Hyland. His body shots could be the decider considering that Martinez pulled out of this bout with broken ribs.
On the undercard heavyweight Martin Rogan won his first fight back, after being injured for over a year. He defeated Yavor Marinchev in one round with a body shot doing the damage. Marinchev was a bit of a joke though and was asked by the ref if he actually wanted to box as all he did was hold on. Rogan will fight again on the undercard of the Andy Murray fight in 2 weeks.
Cork-based Cuban Luis Garcia defeated former world champion Byron Mitchell in a light-heavyweight bout. Mitchell absorbed a lot of punishment and decided not to fight on after suffering a cut eye in the second round. Mitchell looked a completely shot fighter and at 38 should think about calling it a day.