Dunne Is No April Fool

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Irish Voice Sport

Dunne Is No April Fool

April 2, 2008

By Cathal Dervan

TUESDAY was April Fool’s Day. No surprise there. The first of April is normally a day when the world celebrates nonsensical news items that we are all supposed to take as fact. I’m pretty sure the tradition applies in America as much as it does this side of the Atlantic, and this year was no different in Ireland.

The day began, with a school bus run as it always does, but also with the news from Today FM that Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Bertie Ahern is to take High Court Action to stop the Mahon Tribunal delving into areas of his questionable financial activities in the past.

Second story in concerned a legal battle between the Late Late Show host Pat Kenny and his next door neighbor, a retired solicitor as it happens, over ownership of a piece of land in Dalkey known as Gorse Hill and worth a cool ***1 million.

Then came a story that a well known bookmaker’s chain by the name of Paddy Power is to broadcast live kangaroo fighting on their website to offer their punters something new to gamble on.

So guess which story was the odd one out on April Fool’s Day? Not the first one. The most powerful man in the land is indeed taking High Court action to try to stop us discovering the full extent of his financial treachery.

Not the second story. The most powerful broadcaster in the land is fighting his nearest neighbor, in another part of the High Court as it happens, over ownership of a very valuable piece of land in south county Dublin. Squatter’s rights they’d call it anywhere else, but that’s probably too common a term for a place like Dalkey.

So that leave’s news item number three for the prize as the April Fool story of the day and yes, Paddy Power was seeking publicity with their bid to bring live kangaroo fights to their website.

They do, however, have real odds for a proper fight on their site right now, as do all serious Irish bookmakers.

On Saturday, April 12, Bernard Dunne gets back into the ring for the first time since his second minute stoppage against the Spaniard Kiko Martinez at the Point all of eight months ago now.

The Liffeyside venue has since been demolished to make way for a bigger and brighter model, and Dunne hopes to apply the same treatment to his career when he gets back to business in Castlebar’s Breaffy House Sports Hotel of all places in 10 days.

His comeback is to be welcomed. Dunne is too good a fighter and too nice a guy to let one defeat, the first defeat of his pro career, ruin his professional life.

He is better than an 86 second stoppage against Martinez when the Spaniard proved that one punch, the right punch, can stop any man no matter how good he is or how average you are. The fact that Martinez has since surrendered his European crown rather meekly to an English journeyman served to prove that.

Dunne is also proof positive, even in the week that celebrates clowns, that sport is great for offering second chances. If he wins in Mayo, and there’s every reason to believe he will account for the former world champion Felix Machado, then Dunne will be center stage in Irish sporting terms at least once again.

God knows Irish boxing needs him back to his best. In the past few months Dunne has taken a beating and Andy Lee’s unblemished record has also been spoiled by a shock defeat when he too fell to a puncher by the name of Brian Vera in Connecticut last week.

All of which brings us nicely to the subject of one John Duddy, who is now the only Irish boxer inside the world top 10 at the moment according to Ring Magazine, and a fighter who deserves new credit from those pundits this side of the Atlantic who have openly questioned him in recent months.

According to some boxing experts I have read recently, Duddy’s last two fights and his propensity to cut have left serious question marks over his ability to handle a world title bout.

They well have a point, but Duddy is still standing proudly with a 100% record and he is still, as the Sunday Independent pointed out two days before various papers and radio stations tried to trick their readers and listeners with stories about kangaroo fighting and the like, our best hope for a world title shot inside the coming months.

Like Dunne, Duddy knows that pro boxing is a risky business and that one punch can change a career. Like Dunne, he also knows that any pro can throw that punch, never mind take it.

Dunne has taken it and paid the price, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Duddy throws that punch in the very near future and justifies his current ranking as Ireland’s top pro.

And that’s no April Fool’s story. John Duddy against a kangaroo, now that’s a different matter altogether!

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