BERNARD DUNNE KO11 RICARDO CORDOBA

In surely one of the gamest and most amazing victories ever by an Irish fighter, a bloodied Bernard Dunne knocked out Ricardo Cordoba to delight a packed crowd of 9,000 fans at The O2 in Dublin.

This fight, televised world-wide on the internet by the Irish national broadcaster RTE, was one of the epics of recent years. Fights such as the Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez trilogy and Juan Manuel Marquez against Juan Diaz were great fights and this one ranks alongside them.

It had blood and guts, knockdowns, changes of fortune — you name it.

Dunne was cut over both eyes, Cordoba over the right eye. Down in the third, Cordoba rallied to floor Dunne twice in the fifth.

After 10 rounds, the fight seemed to be drifting beyond Dunne’s reach — but then he turned things decisively in his favour in the 11th, knocking down Cordoba three times to achieve a spectacular knockout victory.

The word sensational can be applied without risk of going over the top in a description of the 11th-round ending.

Cordoba had been coming on strongly in the 10th round, really battering Dunne to the body. With two rounds remaining, though, Cordoba was looking tired from the tremendous pace he was setting and when Dunne caught him with a beautiful left hook in the 11th the punch seemed to have a delayed-reaction effect, with the Panamanian champion tottering back on disobedient legs.

Dunne went right after him and Cordoba was overwhelmed to the canvas twice without getting hit by any one really big, clean shot — his legs just wouldn’t keep him up — but the third and final knockdown came from a classic left hook, dropping the champion flat on his back, and Canadian referee Hubert Earle waved the finish without bothering to count.

There were worrying moments when Cordoba received medical attention in the ring, and he was removed on a stretcher, suffering from dehydration. I understand from reports in the Irish press that his overnight stay in hospital was precautionary and that he is expected to make a full recovery, although whether Cordoba can ever be the same fighter after a defeat such as this has to be considered doubtful.

The RTE commentary team of Jimmy Magee and ex-champ Dave McAuley had Dunne winning most of the rounds but I think they were a bit caught up in the emotion of the occasion, which I can understand.

Cordoba, pressing forward, was jabbing, throwing the left hand down the middle and letting fly with scything hooks and almost bolo-type punches from his southpaw stance, and he made a remarkable recovery after the heavy knockdown he suffered in round three.

Apart from the huge fifth round, though, Cordoba was never looking dominant. Dunne boxed a solid, technical fight and kept coming back with well-placed punches, and he looked the stronger man and also the more damaging hitter: his blows seemed to be affecting Cordoba more than the Panamanian’s punches were affecting the Irish fighter.

Every now and again, Cordoba seemed to look just a little unsteady but he kept pushing forwards, sometimes wiping blood away from his right eye. He was putting pressure on Dunne and winning rounds, but he was also taking a lot out of himself — and Dunne’s heavy blows were taking a toll, too.

Still, Cordoba seemed to be forging ahead and he was doing well in the 11th right up to the moment when Dunne caught him with that short, compact left hook and the Panamanian simply came apart; he was “gone” as they say in the business.

Dunne was very impressive. I agreed with Dave McAuley — who won a similar sort of war when getting off the canvas to defeat Colombian Rodolfo Blanco — that Dunne has never boxed better. Dunne looked stronger and punched harder than in any of his previous fights, and he retained his composure at all times. His knockout victory wasn’t achieved by a desperate, guns-blazing attack but by cool, steady and assured boxing. Dunne knew he was hurting Cordoba and, in the ebb-and-flow of battle, he was waiting to get in that one, pivotal punch that would settle the issue — and he landed it.

What surprised me — apart from the magnificent way that Dunne rose to the occasion— was the nature of the fight. I had expected much more of a tactical boxing match, with Cordoba using his speed, slick boxing and savvy. Instead of this, Cordoba went after Dunne and seemed to be trying to knock him out from the beginning. This led to Cordoba getting dropped in round three, and although he surged back and almost won in the fifth he was now locked into an aggressive, win-by-knockout-or-get-knocked-out type of strategy that ultimately was his undoing.

Dave McAuley said something quite telling in the commentary, which was that if the Panamanians, in studying Dunne’s fights on video, were dwelling too much on perceived weaknesses they were making a mistake. I think he was onto something there.

My suspicion is that Cordoba was sent out to try to demolish the Irish boxer, rather than attempt to beat him by an artful display of ringcraft, because the Panamanian camp probably thought that Dunne was a vulnerable fighter who would not be able to withstand the pressure. If that was indeed the Panamanians' thinking, they got it badly wrong.