February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
“It’s great news. I’d feared the worst,” the undefeated featherweight said from his Los Angeles home last Saturday.
Dunne injured his hand in the second round of his last bout, a unanimous points victory over Mexican journeyman Pedro Mora two weeks ago.
The 13-0 Dubliner had hurt the same hand in a fight last November and faced surgery or a long layoff had last week’s diagnosis been worse.
Dunne, who’s 24, returned to the gym after hearing the test results to start preparing for his Showtime date, against an opponent to be named, which will also mark his debut as a 10-round fighter.
He’ll be holding back though, even though he said he felt 100 percent.
“I’ll be taking it easy for the next couple of days, then I’ll step it up,” Dunne said. “It will be my first 10-rounder, but going the distance won’t be a problem for me. My last four fights have gone the distance.”
Ron Katz, matchmaker for Sugar Ray Leonard Promotions, Dunne’s handlers, said upstate New York and Minnesota were the two locations in the running to host the Aug. 19 Showtime card.
“I’m hoping that it’s on the East Coast. That will be a dream come true,” Dunne said.
MAGEE
COMEBACK
Eamonn Magee is back in the gym doing light training as his manager Mike Callahan plans a surprise comeback for the Belfastman, four months after a vicious gang attack forced the boxer to announce his retirement.
The 33-year-old Magee has made a miraculous recovery from the broken leg and blood cuts he suffered in the beating. This has fueled hopes by Callahan that his charge, who goes by the nickname the “Terminator,” can return to the ring before Christmas.
“He’s a superman,” Callahan told the Belfast Telegraph last week. “He’s just different to any other fighter and I think that only Eamonn Magee could come back from what he had to go through.”
Callahan said he thinks Dublin and not Belfast would be the ideal venue for Magee’s return.
“I think the Dublin people would come out in force to see Eamonn,” he said. “The publicity surrounding what happened to him has been incredible and it will be one of the biggest comebacks ever.”
Magee, 25-4 (16 KOs), won the then vacant WBU welterweight in his last fight, a 12-round points decision over Jimmy Vincent in Cardiff last December.