BOXING: Former world super-bantamweight champion Ricardo Cordoba remains in Beaumont Hospital today as a "precautionary measure", after his 11th round knockout at the hands of Bernard Dunne at the O2 Arena last night.
The Panamanian was floored four times in total by the Dubliner and left the ring while receiving oxygen on a stretcher, much to the concern of the new champion.
Initial reports claiming that Dunne had collapsed after the fight were dismissed by promoter Brian Peters this morning, although he was prevented from doing a post-fight press conference on medical advice after suffering dehydration.
Dunne received 10 stitches after the fight in which he too hit the canvas - twice in the fifth round.
Rather than celebrating his win, he visited his opponent in the early hours of the morning and “had a chat with him”.
“He was good, they’re just keeping him in for observation, a precautionary measure. I felt it was right to go in and see him because he put up a hell of a fight,” said Dunne in Ballsbridge this morning, where, as promised, he dutifully attended the rescheduled media briefing, admitting the win hadn’t quite “sunk in”.
“It’s been an incredible ride to get here, it’s been a long road, the eight years that I’m pro, the 10 years I was amateur. I’m in boxing since I was five years of age.”
“It’s been an incredible journey and it’s come to the point where we’ve won ourselves a world title. Now we can have some fun, see how far we can actually go with this title, see what we can add to it.”
That will have to wait, however, as Dunne recovers from a mammoth effort that saw him overcome the odds to beat “quite possibly the best super-bantamweight in the world”, according to promoter Brian Peters.
“Was,” Dunne intervened, “was.”
Dunne admitted he was surprised to hear the scorecards of the judges who had all Cordoba ahead.
“That’s irrelevant now,” he joked. “I definitely thought I was ahead and after the second knockdown in the eleventh round I said to myself ‘well I’m definitely ahead here now’.
“I knew we were close to the end of the round and I didn’t think I’d get another crack at him. Thankfully I did, if that was the scoring.”
He was offered the opportunity to join the Grand Slam winners at the Mansion House today but he took a rain check after promising Pamela and the two kids a trip to see Lazytown at the Olympia.
He’ll get his moment later in the week and spend some more quality time at home after months spent preparing for this fight in Belfast with trainer Harry Hawkins..
Peters has already sent out the feelers on potential challengers. European champion Rendall Munroe was there with promoter Frank Maloney last night and the Dubliner said he would welcome the binman to Dublin, though suggested he should probably “stick to the day job.”
Another option is Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym, the Thai who inflicted Cordoba’s only other defeat, while the latter may seek a rematch.
That ball is in Peters’s court, however. Dunne can put his feet up for now.
