AIBA World Youth Champion Joe Ward claimed a thrilling victory over Kenny Egan in the light-heavyweight final of the Elite Championships at the National Stadium.
Egan was targeting an unprecedented 11th successive Elite title but never looked at his best against the 17-year-old Ward, who is 11 years his junior.
Egan came out strongly and was the early aggressor but a second minute flurry from Ward had the Olympic medallist scrambling and was a sign of things to come.
Both fighters struggled to land clean in the those opening stages but with the duo tied a 1-1, a booming left from Ward gave him the advantage at the end of the first round.
Ward looked the hungrier of the two and a series of fast flurries early in the second round caused problems for Egan, whose natural rhythm was being disrupted by the busy Ward.
Egan tagged Ward with a neat scoring counter-punch and appeared content to try and soak up the considerable pressure but with Ward piling forward Egan continued to drop his head and was warned by referee Sadie Duffy, costing him 2 points and leaving the scores level 4-4 at the end of the second.
That penalty further upset Egan’s rhythm and he appeared to be running out of answers to Ward’s pressure game. When the Dubliner was penalised a second time for dropping his head, he lost his composure.
Ward showed guile and experience beyond his years after that, continuing to keep Egan on the back foot and a crunching left in the closing stages of the round floored Egan, who had to take a standing eight count before the clock ran down and Ward ran out the 11-6 victor.
In the night's middleweight final, Darren O'Neill eased to victory over Jason Quigley.
O'Neill always looked comfortable and could even afford a 2 point penalty for a low blow as his body-shots rocked Quigley and help him to a 7-4 win.
There was controversy in the lightweight division as Michael McDonagh beat David Oliver Joyce via disqualification.
McDonagh was 6-5 ahead in the closing stages of the third round when a eye-watering low blow forced him to take a 10-count and saw Joyce disqualified.
