{"id":675521,"date":"2026-09-06T15:46:24","date_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:46:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/675521\/"},"modified":"2026-09-06T15:46:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-06T15:46:24","slug":"paddy-donovan-shines-but-thomas-carty-suffers-bizarre-fall-on-croke-park-undercard-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/675521\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddy Donovan shines, but Thomas Carty suffers bizarre fall on Croke Park undercard \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Saturday night at Croke Park<\/a> was all about Katie Taylor<\/a>, but it was also an opportunity for some rising Irish stars (and Westlife) to perform in front of a massive audience<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, the co-main event went badly wrong for Thomas Carty (11-1), the 30-year-old heavyweight from Phibsboro, as his step-up fight against England\u2019s Dave Allen (27-9-2) ended in an unprecedented no-contest.<\/p>\n

Allen cuffed Carty with a blow to the back of the head late in the first round, and Carty somehow fell headfirst through the very slack looking ropes, falling dramatically to the ground several feet below.<\/p>\n

Having sustained injuries due to the fall, his fight was clearly over, and it was left for referee Emile Tiedt to make a decision on the outcome of this bizarre fight.<\/p>\n

Dave Allen protested strongly, but the result was announced as a no-contest, meaning both fighters maintained their current records, in a disappointing fight at an already packed Croke Park.<\/p>\n

\"ThomasThomas Carty after being knocked out of the ring during his fight against Dave Allen. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Limerick\u2019s Paddy Donovan (now 16-2) had a far more successful night, as he put on an outstanding display to stop Belfast\u2019s Tyrone McKenna (now 25-7-1) in the fifth round of a welterweight bout.<\/p>\n

McKenna was sent to the canvas in round two with a sickening body shot, but recovered well to survive the rest of the round.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Donovan was nearly flawless in defence, only getting caught clean once in the third, and pressing home his advantage at every opportunity, looking razor-sharp with his lead right hand.<\/p>\n

The stoppage came in round four, as Donovan opened up a massive cut over the right eye of McKenna, as the doctors advised referee Paul McCullagh to halt the action.<\/p>\n

\"PaddyPaddy Donovan and Tyrone McKenna embrace after the fight was stopped due to a cut over McKenna\u2019s eye. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The Belfast man protested, but he was clearly outmatched by his younger opponent. It is the 12th stoppage victory of Donovan\u2019s career, who is the current mandatory challenger for the IBF welterweight world title held by Australia\u2019s Liam Paro.<\/p>\n

Local boy Emmet Brennan (6-1) was stopped in round six of a brave effort against English super middleweight prospect Taylor Bevan (10-0), having tasted the canvas five times in the fight.<\/p>\n

The Tokyo Olympian started gamely, testing Bevan\u2019s chin with a couple of left hooks in two fairly even opening rounds, but was sent down twice at the end of round three.<\/p>\n

Brennan recovered strongly and got back to his boxing in the fourth, but was down again near the end of the fifth round and the sixth looked likely to be a struggle for the Dublin fighter.<\/p>\n

\"TaylorTaylor Bevan knocks Emmet Brennan down again to win the fight at Croke Park. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

The doctors examined Brennan extensively before the sixth, and their anxiety proved well-founded. Bevan sent his man down on a crippling body shot, and while Brennan rose courageously again, the fight could surely have been stopped at that point.<\/p>\n

Instead, his bravery cost him, as Bevan finished the fight with one further hook to the head as soon as the fight was restarted, knocking out the previously unbeaten Irishman.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Katie Taylor: \u2018I\u2019m ending my career on top … I\u2019m ending as the undisputed champion\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier on in the evening, Liverpool\u2019s Molly McCann (4-0), a cousin of Katie Taylor, recorded her fourth professional boxing win of her career with a routine unanimous decision win over Sylwia Doligala (8-3). <\/p>\n

Having previously fought in the UFC in mixed martial arts, McCann made another positive step in her boxing career, only dropping two rounds across all three judges\u2019 scorecards in the eight-round fight.<\/p>\n

\"MollyMolly McCann (right) in action against Sylwia Doligala. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, two Dublin prospects picked up their fourth wins, with Bobbi Flood and Adam Olaniyan each moving to 4-0 in their budding pro careers.<\/p>\n

Flood won every round of a four-rounder over England\u2019s Jack Swallow (4-13-1), but Swallow managed to move around and hold on at all the right times to avoid being stopped by the 21-year-old Dub.<\/p>\n

Heavyweight prospect Adam Olaniyan knocked out Czechia\u2019s Matej Hudak (6-2) in the final seconds of round one in his fourth fight.<\/p>\n

\"AdamAdam Olaniyan in action against Matej Hudak. Photograph: Gary Carr\/Inpho <\/p>\n

All of Hudak\u2019s wins had come by first-round stoppage, but the Jobstown man had little trouble avoiding the oncoming fire and pouring on pressure of his own.<\/p>\n

The stoppage was impressive, with Olaniyan sending his man down with a straight right and left uppercut combination. Hudak\u2019s nose was already pouring blood by that stage and he was counted out, unable to be saved by the bell.<\/p>\n

In the first fight of the card, middleweight Paul Ryan won a six-rounder against Paddy Gallagher, although the decision was initially read out for the wrong man.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday night at Croke Park was all about Katie Taylor, but it was also an opportunity for some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,1007,18,13,14,6,19,17,26779,11,12,15,16,5,7,8],"class_list":["post-675521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-croke-park","tag-eire","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-katie-taylor","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117224879277224909","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}