IT WILL BE a night of history at the National Stadium and it will begin and end with two Donegal boxers chasing their first Irish titles at senior level.
The Quick Park National Elite Senior Women’s Championship finals take place tonight at the home of Irish boxing.
The old, dark, smoking arena, the mecca for Irish punchers, sees European, World and Olympic champion Katie Taylor compete for an Irish title for the first time.
The Bray woman has four titles to her name previously, but she’s never had to box for one. Tonight, Tipperary southpaw Shauna O’Keefe stands poised in the blue corner for the lightweight final.
For Donna Barr (picture above) of Twin Towns BC and Carrigart ABC’s Maeve McCarron, it is also a night that will go down in their own history books, with both aiming to collect their first Irish senior honours.
Strabane woman Barr overcame her old rival Alexandra Kornaga in last week’s semi-final in Dublin and will meet Edenderry’s Lauren Hogan in the light-flyweight decider.
Barr turned in a superb performance last Friday night and comes into the final looking to add to her previous Irish crowns, the National Novice Intermediates and the Irish Under-21s.
McCarron (pictured above) is on the scent of an eighth Irish title with the Carrigart woman takimg to the canvas for her first senior final as she takes on Garda’s Diana Campbell in the 81+kgs bout.
McCarron won the heavyweight final at the recent Irish Intermediate Championships when she stopped Jenny Carlyle in the third round.
A bronze medalist at the European Youth Championships in 2013, McCarron was beaten in the recent Ulster senior final by Caroline Connolly, but the biggest bout of her young career awaits tonight when the bell goes on the South Circular Road.
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