THE ‘FIGHTING IRISH’ schoolteacher Oisín Fagan made a return from Oklahoma City to his native Dublin recently, defeating Latvian Konstantin Sakara to make a big charge for a possible title shot later in the year.
Fagan took Sakara in a sixround bout, winning every round en-route to a win on points by 60 to 54. Famous for his toughness in the ring, Fagan didn’t disappoint. He started strong and hunted down the fit-looking Sakara, landing big right hands and following with left hooks to the head.
However, the gritty Sakara took all the punishment meted out to him and was determined to go the distance. On no less than six occasions, Fagan looked to have the Latvian badly hurt, with hard hooks to the body. In three such instances, Sakara winced and appeared as if he was going to meet the canvas but he dug deep and escaped a count. At the end of the fight, Fagan said: “My timing wasn’t great tonight. I missed with a lot of shots. I wasn’t able to spar after sustaining a cut eye a couple of weeks ago, thus the reason for my bad timing. I also caught myself chasing him around the ring, instead of cutting the ring off, which was a little amateurish on my behalf.
“However, I was very anxious to keep on him and not let him off the hook and somesometimes I get caught up in the intensity of the fight rather than doing things easy. Having said that, a win is a win and that puts me in a commanding position now.” Fagan continued: “I think I will take on Verquan Kimbrough for the NABA (North American Boxing Association) title in West Virginia on 29 August, which is supposed to be aired as a main event on ESPN 2 in the US. After that, it looks like Andy Murray and myself will get it on for the Irish lightweight title. “Andy looked great tonight against a tough Peter McDonagh, so I guess that’s the natural fight at domestic level for me now. Then, whether I win that or not will determine if I can perhaps look to fight for a European title somewhere down the line.”
