By Adam McKendry
Paddy Barnes became the WBO European Flyweight champion at Belfast’s Waterfront Hall on Saturday night as he defeated experienced Spaniard Silvio Olteanu on a majority decision.
Former Olympic bronze medalist Barnes produced a strong performance to see off former European champion Olteanu, and was arguably hard done by in not being given a unanimous decision.
It means Barnes now holds a title having only boxed in three professional bouts, all three of which he has won, and is now eyeing a fight for the WBO Inter-Continental title next.
Majority decision: 95-95, 97-94, 97-93 in favour of @paddyb_ireland 🍀 #AndTheNew WBO European Flyweight Champion 👏#BarnesOlteanu pic.twitter.com/b4Z7PWa9Rr
— BoxNation (@boxnationtv) June 17, 2017
It was a good night all round for Northern Irishmen as all five fighters - including Barnes - picked up victories in their home venue of the Waterfront Hall.
Derry/Londonderry super-middleweight Sean McGlinchey got the night off to a good start, defeating England’s Dan Blackwell on a points decision in the opening bout of the card to improve to 2-0-0.
That was followed by Belfast welterweight Lewis Crocker, who also improved to 2-0-0 with a second round TKO over Bulgarian Radoslav Mitev, while light-heavyweight Steven Ward moved to 4-0-0 with a fourth round TKO over Hungary’s Istvan Orsos.
The other Northern Irishman to win was super-lightweight Tyrone McKenna, who is now 14-0-1 following his fourth round TKO over Ferenc Katona from Hungary.
Dublin’s Jono Carroll also picked up a European title on the night, remaining unbeaten (14-0-0) and inflicting a first defeat on Liverpool’s John Quigley (14-1-0) to take the IBF European Super-Featherweight crown on a split points decision.
In the night’s third title fight, Welshman Craig Evans successfully defended his WBO European Lightweight title with a unanimous points decision win over Ireland’s Stephen Ormond.
There were two debut wins for England’s Alex Dickinson and former Irish Olympian David Oliver Joyce, both by TKO against Ferenc Zsalek and Gabor Kovacs (both Hungary) respectively.
In the final fight of the night, England's Sam Maxwell improved to 3-0-0 with a TKO victory over Bulgaria’s Angel Emilov.