beanskiz wrote:It would be good to see Haughian on the bill, his last fight fell through in New York, im sure he's itchin to get into the ring sometime soon.....
*cough*Chris O'Brien*cough*belt on the line*cough*make it happen*cough*
Nice 1!
Haughian vs McIntyre for the celtic title (eliminator for the British title)
will be looking forward to this one more than the main event now
stujones wrote:Agree with the comments on Daws or Barnes.... However, Lauri isn't a step up from them.
While that's true, Daws only World ranking is 31st with the WBC, Barnes isn't ranked by anyone.
Lauri on the otherhand has managed to get himself a #12 ranking with the WBC.
Lauri has also managed to pick up all the bauble titles WBA/WBC/WBO/IBF International/Intercontinental titles in his career and a win over Lauri would be more likely to force McCloskey into the WBA/WBO/IBF rankings than beating either Daws or Barnes.
Irish handful Paul McCloskey defends his European light-welterweight title against Italian veteran Giuseppe Lauri at the historic King’s Hall in Belfast on June 4.
Southpaw McCloskey burst on to the scene in December 2008 when at short notice he stopped the established Colin Lynes in nine rounds in Colin’s own hometown of Dagenham to win the British light-welterweight title. Burly and strong yet slick and quick, McCloskey proved what a punishing fighter he is that night and has since also hammered Dean Harrison in four rounds in defence of his British title and Spain’s outgunned Daniel Rasilla in nine rounds to wrest the big EBU belt last November, to take his record to an unblemished 20-0 (10).
We know all about Lauri, a typical slippery Italian who has frequented these shores against men of the calibre of Ricky Hatton, Junior Witter and Ted Bami, all of whom got the better of him. However, the 33-year-old is unbeaten in his last eight since Bami outscored him over 12 rounds in Crawley in 2007. His record of 50-6 (29) speaks volumes for his experience.
We can expect Lauri to make it awkward for McCloskey as he holds and complains and tries to break the champion’s concentration. McCloskey needs to keep cool in front of big home support and to keep working, digging in the body shots, switching upstairs, increasing the pressure round by round...
I doubt whether McCloskey will stop Lauri, who has only been upended by Hatton, Witter and Leva Kirakosyan, but I can see him working his way to a unanimous decision.
