Sexton tops the bill at Ennis show

Ennis Boxing club will stage a tournament to mark the 50th anniversary of the club on Saturday night in the West County Hotel at 8pm.

It is a long road, well travelled for the officials of the Ennis Club and many of the boxers who brought honour to the club in the intervening years will be on hand to celebrate and savour the 14 bouts on offer on the evening.
The West County has hosted many great tournaments in the past 35 years and while most tournaments in the past have been dinner-cabaret affairs, this one is strictly boxing, with a couple of musical interludes.
Topping the bill on Saturday night will be a light-middleweight contest between triple Irish champion, Keelan Sexton from the host club and Jim Keenan from Our Lady of Lourdes club in Limerick. These two are well-acquainted with each other in the ring and, while their paths have not crossed in championship competition, they have sparred on several occasions and each knows the other’s potential for all-out battle.
Keenan has won a couple of Munster titles and was within an ace of capturing an Irish title last year and he has prepared diligently for this fight. Sexton, on the other hand, has been busy with the international panel and won a bronze in the European championships earlier in the season but has been hampered slightly by a hand injury over the past few weeks.
Either way, the bout promises much and will undoubtedly be the highlight of the evening.
Equally intriguing should be the battle between the outstanding Brian McDonagh from the Ennis club and Limerick’s Adam O’Donnell from the St Francis Club. Both fighters captured Irish titles in April and are highly rated nationally for future Irish teams.
Lee Sherlock moves up to the 60kg for the first time to take on another Limerick fighter, Willie Harty, and a battle of wits is inevitable here with the slick southpaw movements of Sherlock set to unhinge the extremely aggressive Harty. This too promises to be a thriller.
Middleweight, Wayne Danaher, who hails from Lisdoonvarna and boxes out of Ennis, will take on Benny McNamara from the Our Lady of Lourdes and, while each is making his debut in the division, there will be lots of action and the distinct possibility that the bout will not go the full distance.
For the first time on an Ennis tournament bill, three female boxers will do battle. Tara Dowling (60kg), Sally Carrig (66kg) and Antoinette Keane (66kg) will take on Katie McElwain (St Paul’s), Niamh Ball (Trojan) and Patrique Kelly (St Francis) respectively.
Both Carrig and Keane are Irish champions, while Dowling holds a silver medal from this year’s championships. All three are in good shape for their debuts at local level.
It had been hoped to match Kayleigh McCormack and Caoileann McCormack from the Kilfenora club but, to date, opponents have not been located for the North Clare girls, each of whom are Irish champions at their respective weights.
Two contests in the super-heavyweight class are set to round off a great night’s boxing on Saturday.
Guests to the event will include Chick Gillen from the famous Olympic Club in Galway, who has had a massive impact on the proliferation of boxing in Ennis and was the trainer of Francie Barrett, the first traveller to represent Ireland in the Olympic games. A legend in his native city, Gillen has done Trojan work for the youth of Galway over five decades.

The programme of fights:
1) G3 60kg: Tara Dowling (Ennis) v Katie McElwain (St Paul’s)
2) Boy 2 42kg: Conor Doyle (Ennis) v Jason Harty (Rathkeale Limerick)
3) Boy 3 52kg: Michael McDonagh (Ennis) v Gary Butterfield (St Francis Limerick)
4) Junior 57kg: Simon McDonagh (Ennis) v Steve Casey (Rathkeale)
5) B3 63kg: Brian McDonagh (Ennis) v Adam O’Donnell (St Francis)
6) Welterweight: Dom McNamara (C Christi) v John Harty (Rathkeale)
7) Girls 66kg: Antoinette Keane (Ennis) v Patrique Kelly (St Francis)
8) Light-welterweight: Lee Sherlock (Ennis) v Willie Harty (Rathkeale)
9) Light-middleweight: Ger Griffin (C Christi) v Davy Saunders (St Paul’s)
10) Super heavyweight: Cian O’Regan (C Christi) v Steve Forde (St Paul’s)
11) Middleweight: Wayne Danaher (Ennis) v Benny McNamara (OLOL Limerick)
12) Super heavyweight: Kris Sikora (St Francis) v Aidan O’Kkeeffe (St Paul’s)
13) Jnr 66kg: Sally Carrig (Ennis) v Niamh Ball (Trojan)
14) B4 50kg: Jamie Keane (Ennis) v Terry O’Brien (Rathkeale)
15) Welterweight: Keelan Sexton (Ennis) v Jim Keenan (OLOL Limerick).