Eamonn O’Kane lost his IBF middleweight title eliminator fight to Tureano Johnson of the Bahamas on a unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York last night.
The Derry boxer hit the canvas twice in the opening round under a barrage of shots from Johnson.
O’Kane recovered and produced solid second, fifth and sixth rounds but the judges scored the fight 118-108, 117-109, 119-107 to Johnson.
Elsewhere, Matthew Macklin claimed the vacant WBC International light-middleweight title beating Jason Welborn in Birmingham.
The 33-year-old, who admitted afterwards he was still adapting to fighting at light-middleweightclass, claimed a 96-94, 96-94, 97-93 victory.
