ON SATURDAY-WEEK, November 7, Raphoe ABC hosts Tenbury Wells ABC from Birmingham in major boxing contest at Deele College.
A Donegal select, comprising mainly of boxers from the Raphoe and Convoy club, represented Ireland in an international tournament in Tenbury Wells back in March.
Now, the club of Paddy Brennan, the Tenbury Wells ABC coach who has strong ties to the Lifford area, will come to Raphoe to tackle the cream of the local crop.
Finn Valley’s ten-time Irish champion and Youth Olympic bronze medalist Michael Gallagher and Raphoe’s flamboyant middleweight Cathal McLaughlin (pictured above) are set to feature in the headline bouts.
Strabane man McLaughlin comes up against former British Youth kingpin Lee Gunter in what promises to be an explosive contest.
Heavyweight Gallagher – gunning for Irish title number eleven this weekend – will lock horns withe Birmingham’s six-times English ABA champion Ryan Hatton.
When these two faced each other three years ago in a youth international in Riverstown, County Cork, it was the English puncher who took a very close split points decision.
Finn Valley ironman Gallagher will be all out to reverse that result in front of his large army of fans on Saturday-week.
In the featherweight division, Raphoe’s ever-green Dennis Lafferty will have to be red hot on the night when he comes up against the much -raveled Liam Pritchard.
At light-middle, Raphoe’s rugged Danny Dugan will have to pull out all the stops if he is to overcome Luton’s Owen Cassidy and the ever-improving Liam McMonagle will have his hands full with England’s schoolboy champion Phillip Doherty.
Rising Raphos prospect Liam Crawford has won his previous four bouts and meets Andy Williamson while Ronan McGrinder meets the much-talked about Evan Blake.
At 60kg Raphoe’s Eunan McLaughlin will face Niall Hatton and middleweight sparks will fly when Ruairi McGlinchey meets Mike O’Keene with Ronan Kelly up against Mel Grower.
Raphoe’s Danny Roulston will face Andrew Richards and Oran Devine of Raphoe is paired with George Hume.
The action will get underway at 8pm sharp and, as a big crowd is expected, supporters are asked to be in their seats early. Tickets are available from any club member.
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