By Jonathan Brown
Donagh Keary suffered the first defeat of his professional boxing career on Saturday as he lost out to Middlesbrough fighter Caine Singh via a points decision at Windsor Park. The Castlewellan native had entered the bout unbeaten since turning professional in November last year, but Singh upset the odds to hand the 21-year-old his first loss in the paid ranks.
The super bantamweight contest in Belfast was a competitive, back-and-forth affair. Keary started well, finding early success with sharp left hooks to the body. However, Singh—who came into the fight with a modest record of two wins, seven losses, and two draws—grew in confidence as the first round progressed and opened the second round on the front foot.
By the fourth and final round, Singh was clearly in the ascendancy, launching a series of aggressive two-handed attacks that had Keary covering up against the ropes. Despite the pressure, Keary managed to land a clean uppercut that sent Singh’s gumshield flying, offering a brief moment of resurgence.
Referee Eamon Magill scored the bout 39–37 in Singh’s favour, though Keary’s coach and co-manager, Bobby Lavery, felt the result could have gone either way. “We won the first round, and we were doing well moving into the third minute of the second round,” Lavery said. “Personally, I thought we won the second round. A lot of people are saying Donagh did well in the third round as well.”
Lavery admitted Keary faded in the final round but still landed the eye-catching uppercut. “His worst round was his fourth round – the gas had run out of the tank at that stage, but he still caught him with an uppercut and knocked his gumshield out of his mouth.”
Reflecting on the outcome, Lavery added: “A draw would have been a fair result, and I thought we might even have nicked it, but the referee is the closest man to it.”
In the full story Bobby explains how Donagh was surprised at how he felt in the fourth round.
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