If anyone or anything deserves a little ‘luck of the Irish’ it is Shamrock Promotions.
Having witnessed the horror of two very attractive 10-round contests collapse for their Eston Leisure Centre visit this Saturday, it is nice to see their Middlesbrough show WILL go on.
Mervyn Turner appears to have weaved his magic, not for the first time, and conjured up seven fights.
It all began to go horribly wrong a couple of weeks back when Oliver Duffy pulled out of the English welterweight championship eliminator with Bobby Dalton.
The promoters tried to find a meaningful fight for Redcar’s unbeaten Northern Area champion but none could be arranged so Bobby bowed out of the show.
Shamrock still had the fascinating showdown between Tom Summerbell and Anth Ornsby to headline their promotion, that was until last weekend when Ornsby cried off.
Attempts were made to keep the Northern Area light-middleweight title fight alive but it was not to be.
Hopefully, Mervyn and his Shamrock team can get both the English championship eliminator and Northern Area title contests on again in the very near future.
Thankfully, Trimdon star Summerbell, who boxes out of Billingham Boxing Academy, has kept his place at Eston Leisure Centre, where he will go over six rounds with Manish.
The much-travelled Indian 24-year-old, fresh from two wins on home soil, brings an 8-3-1 record to Teesside, including five victories inside the distance.
The loss of both championship affairs means that Alex Farrell gets a night under the spotlight.
We in this region know the excitement the 27-year-old provides, but his career has not reached take-off point yet.
Having fought only once in 2023 and the same last year, hopefully his eight-round contest against Octavian Gratii will be a stepping stone to a busier and productive run for the Newcastle light-middleweight (pictured).
Farrell, coached expertly by David Binns at East Durham, has assembled an 11-0 record, including five Ws inside the distance.
Gratii îs a familiar figure to North-East audiences, having gone the distance last year at Rainton Arena against Jeff Saunders and Travis Waters, while he fought Darren Surtees in the summer of 2022.
Three of the bouts are female, including an intriguing all-British confrontation between Hannah Robinson and Sheffield’s Georgia Klein.
Highly-decorated Hannah has won all three professional outings, including a points success over Erica Alvarez in April following her return home to Darlington.
Here she comes up against another unbeaten fighter, Klein, who has won both of her bouts, including a stoppage on debut.
There will be much anticipation surrounding the pro debut of Jade Pearce, who takes on Valgerdur Gudsteindottir.
Mention the name Pearce in the 1990s and boxing folk of a certain age would instantly say “John Pearce” who won a ton for Wellington ABC and for his country.
But now in the 21st century, Boro’s J Pearce is Jade, herself a successful amateur who is now set for a crack in the paid ranks.
Gudsteindottir is a name which would score big in Scrabble, but she is much more than that.
Valgerdur has a very fair record of 7-7 and went the distance with Lauren Price on the Olympic gold medalist’s pro debut.
Punch-lines shouyld not be biased, of course, but we are thrilled to see Kerry Haley on the bill.
The Consett fighter has had precious little luck with numerous fights facing through but this time it is on.
Kerry is matched with Ester Konečná, who we’ve watched in action against April Hunter, Savannah Marshall and Georgia O’Connor who, tragically, was taken from us recently.
Saturday night’s Shamrock card would not be a Shamrock card without a little Irish flavour.
That is provided by Cavan middleweight Dominic Donegan, who is chasing his 10th paid win but has a potentially lively opponent in Tom Ramsden, who is a very capable operator.
There is a debut for Bray’s Sean Tyndell, an Ireland U22 finalist last year, who faces Liam Fitzmaurice, from Manchester, over four rounds.
Words: Roy Kelly Picture: Tom Collins
