BOXING:BERNARD DUNNE is unlikely to step into the ring for at least three months for the first defence of his WBA super bantamweight title. The 29-year-old, who finished his fight against Panama's Ricardo Cordoba in the 11th round at the weekend, suffered two cuts around his eyes, one of them requiring 10 stitches. It is improbable that the Neilstown fighter will have healed in time for another fight before June, with July being the most likely date to resume.
Dunne was away from the ring for four months after an accidental clash of heads stopped his last previous fight, in Castlebar in November against Uruguayan Christian Faccio.
Dunne’s promoter and manager Brian Peters is considering the most lucrative options available and will seriously look at having Dunne in the O2 Arena once more, as it would guarantee a friendly 9,000 sell-out crowd,
“The cut’s opened again,” said Peters. “Dublin, well that would be the hope but we’ll have to see. I’m sure we all wouldn’t mind taking a trip to main street Las Vegas . . . look, there’s anything. After that there’s a tough Thai guy (Poonsawat Kratingdaenggym). He’s certainly knocking around.
“We kind of hoped we’d get a mandatory in but with the injury, the cuts and that, the simple answer is I don’t know what’s next.”
Peters knows Poonsawat will push very hard to be Dunne’s first title defence as he has been on the outside hungrily looking in for some time now.
But the Irish fighter must consider the pulling power of his first challenger as well as any interest television might have. As good a fighter as he is, Poonsawat – who outpointed Cordoba in 2005 in Bangkok, does not come high up the list of drawing power.
Desperate for a crack at the belt, the Thai contender tried to derail Dunne’s meeting with Cordoba by having the Panamanian stripped of his title because he would not fight him. He has been first in line for the mandatory fight since last summer.
But the WBA traditionally allow a bedding in period for new champions and would be unlikely to force Dunne to meet the mandatory challenger for the first defence of his belt.
Dunne would be entitled to fight any of the WBA’s top 15 fighters in a voluntary defence and that is the direction in which he and Peters may look.
“Look you’re into a bit of bullshit here and politics, the usual story,” added Peters. “This mandatory Thai is a tricky guy so it will probably go to purse bids. Then Bernard with his injury is probably going to delay it a wee bit.
“But we’re the champion now and we just got to take stock. There are certainly a lot of good fighters out there. I have had talks with Golden Boy (Oscar De La Hoya). (Israel)) Vasquez is there, (Rafael) Marquez is there. There are a lot of good guys and Bernard is right up there with the best of them.”
The WBC champion Vasquez is injured but he is a fighter Dunne knows exceptionally well, having sparred countless times with him during his early days as a professional at trainer Freddie Roach’s Wild Card gym in Los Angeles.
Indeed Dunne’s regular meetings with the Mexican was one of the reasons that led him to believe he could one day become a world champion too as he felt he troubled Vasquez during their regular daily sessions.
Marquez, another tough Mexican and a regular name on the best pound-for-pound fighter list in boxing, is a former IBF and IBO bantamweight champion as well as WBC super bantamweight champion.
Both fighters would have a huge Hispanic following in the USA, with an Irish-Hispanic package certain to be a considerable attraction to US networks and venues.
Peters’ reference to Las Vegas may have been post-fight flippancy but at 29 years old and with 29 professional fights behind him it makes sense for Dunne to quickly reap what he can as the title holder.
Celestino Cabellero, reggae singer as well as IBF super bantamweight champion also from Panama, and Steve Molitor, the fighter Cabellero beat last year for the IBF title, are also possibilities.
