Irish Heavyweight fighting tonight on Skysports

ffs a.d. when he's beaten will he still be irish ...i'm sick of us laying claim to every tom dick and harry ..we're getting like the english imo...

I dont think the Cuban boxing federation allows them to turn professional so i presume thats why he's living in Ireland.

Wait till you see the size of Tye Fields the Canadian he's a giant of a man Barry McGuigan stood beside him the other night he was only up to his chest. Field is about 7ft and 20 stone.

perez is a machine......

Mansell thought he was standing under a windmill

Oh Mikey Perez he used to be Cuban but he is Irish now Oh Mikey Perez he used to be a Cuban but he's Irish now.

Bring on the klitschko brothers...Both in the ring at the same time

He must be from the southside,fair play.

Cork based Cuban, Mike The Rebel Perez believes he can finally
break the favourites curse in Prizefighter by becoming the first ever
bookies favourite to triumph in the hugely popular one night
tournament which for the first time ever goes global this weekend.

The event which will be broadcast live on Sky Sports from the
Alexandra Palace in London this Saturday has brought a whole new
generation of fans to the sport and this weekend will see the first
ever International Prizefighter with eight men from eight different
nations taking part with Perez proudly flying the flag for Ireland.

The 25-year-old, a World Junior Champion from the amateur ranks
arrived in Ireland early in 2008 and now sees himself very much as an
adopted Irishman having settled in Cork with his Irish fiancee. The
couple recently celebrated the birth of baby daughter Mia and Perez
has revealed that it has given him an extra incentive to fulfil what
he belies is his destiny to bring the World Heavyweight title back to
Cork.

My little baby girl Mia was born in March and she is my pride and
joy and I will dedicate my Prizefighter victory to her, said Perez.
Cuba has still not had a World Heavyweight Champion in the
professional ranks and Ireland has not had one in well over a century
so I want to be the one to win it and bring glory to Cuba and
Ireland.

The lightning fast southpaw has drawn comparisons to a young Mike
Tyson in compiling a perfect record of 13 and 0 with 10 KO's and he's
looking forward to adding a further three victories to that tally on
Saturday night as he aims for a clean sweep in the quarter final,
semi final and final of the Prizefighter.

I fought twice in one night in Limerick last year so to fight three
times in one night will not be a problem for me. In fact I would be
happier if they lined the other seven guys up in front of me at the
start of the night because I believe I would take them all out.

Last weekend's draw originally pitted Perez with former World title
challenger and David Haye's sparring partner Fres Oquendo but the
Puerto Rican was forced to withdraw last weekend while another former
World title challenger Kevin Johnson has also withdrawn from the
lineup. Johnson had been drawn in the second quarter final against
French Champion Gregory Tony and was tipped by most experts to be
Perez's most likely semi final opponent.

Despite the late change in opponent from Oquendo to Trinidad and
Tobago's Kertson Manswell Perez remains unfussed.ed. The withdrawals
don't concern me, I had sparred both Oquendo and Johnson before so I
would have had no problems with either of them but maybe they had
problems with me. Now I am facing Manswell but I don't care who they
put in front of me, the result will be the same.

Manswell has just one defeat in his 21 fights to date with 15 of his
wins coming via KO while the other half of the draw features British
representative and former Prizefighter Champ, Michael Sprott. The
lineup also features 6 foot 9 inch Russian Evgeny Orlov and 6 foot 8
inch American Tye Fields who has scored 41 knockout victories in his
45 wins.

However despite the hard hitting lineup Perez believes that the
Prizefighter trophy and the 32,000 first prize could prove the key
to unlocking the door to the richest prize in sport, the World
heavyweight title. Once I get Prizefighter out of the way I want to
chase down the winner of the Klitschko and Haye fight, said Perez.
The heavyweight division has not had any excitement for a long time
but I want to get people talking about the heavyweight again,
starting this weekend

We are going to have a world champ here lads.

This boy will do Ireland proud in the ring.  It's something to look forward to.

CORK, Ireland (March 25, 2011) – WBA Interim Super Bantamweight champion Guillermo ‘El Chacal’ Rigondeaux (8-0, 6 KOs), arguably the greatest amateur boxer of all time, retained his world title last Saturday night by beating previously undefeated hometown favorite and former European champion, Willie ‘Big Bang” Casey (11-1, 7 KOs), in impressive fashion at City West Convention Center in Dublin.

The Guillermo-Casey title fight featured a pair of undefeated boxers headlining a show promoted by Top Rank, Nowhere 2 Hyde Promotions and Dolphil Promotions. Nowhere 2 Hyde Promotions is owned and operated by Gary Hyde, who has managed Rigondeaux since he defected from Cuba in 2007.

‘Rigo’ entered the ring to roar of 4,200 fans loudly booing him, but the talented foreigner calmly pranced around the ring during the pre-fight announcements, and boldly made the executioner sign to the angry, partisan crowd.

At the sounding of the first bell, Casey headed straight at “Rigo,” expecting him to retreat, but Guillermo took a half-step back and countered with a furious combination. Casey instantly felt his opponent’s amazing power and less than one minute later the rugged Irishman was stopped in his tracks by Rigondeaux’ signature punch — left cross to the liver.

The writing was on the wall as Casey started running scared, attempting to survive the onslaught. ‘Rigo’ is known as a great finisher and he went right after his soon-to-be eighth pro victim, catching Casey with a perfectly delivered uppercut that dropped Casey for the first time in his pro career. The extremely confident ‘Rigo’ strolled over to the neutral corner with one arm raised, signaling his impending victory. Casey rose and ran for cover with ‘Rigo’ closing in to finish the show.

Rigondeaux’ all-out attack, particularly a devastating combination, sent Willie
flying across the ring, and down again. This time a dazed Casey rose on very unsteady legs and as the action was about to resume, veteran referee Stanley Christodoulou warned Willie that he would stop the fight if Casey was floored again. “Rigo” immediately jumped all over an overwhelmed and outclassed Casey, who stumbled forward and was going down but was saved further embarrassment by the referee officially who halted the action at 2:38 of the opening round. ‘Rigo” had successfully silenced the crowd with assassin-like results in his first Interim WBA title defense.

Much had been written about both fighters leading up to the March 19th showdown regarding their respective records professional and amateur, home countries, families and much more. What hadn’t been reported written about them, though, was the Cuban boxer’s many links to Ireland, as well as his humanitarian nature.

Hyde, who hails from Cork, had been instrumental in bringing a number of Cuban fighters to Ireland, including Rigondeauz, to start their professional boxing careers.

“Rigondeaux defending his world title in Ireland was like a dream come true for me,” Hyde explained. “I managed Rigondeaux since 2007, when in Cuba he signed a managerial contract with me, but it wasn’t until 2009 that the great Cuban fighter managed to defect from Cuba to the United States in order to begin his professional career.”

In January of 2010, while preparing for his fifth pro fight versus Adolfo Landeros, a devastating earthquake hit the Island of Haiti. ‘Rigo’ told Hyde he wanted to donate the purse for that fight to Haitian relief efforts. Hyde contacted Dr. Mick Molloy, a medical officer with the Boxing Union of Ireland, who was at that time working in Boston at the Division of Disaster Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre, which is associated with the Harvard Medical School network.

Dr. Molloy engaged in a number of trips to Haiti as a member of the disaster medical
team from the International Centre for Disaster Resilience (ICDR), operated by prominent members of the Disaster Medicine section at Harvard Medical
School, Dr Greg Ciottone and Dr Robert Macy.

Dr. Molloy spent more than a year in Boston specializing in disaster Medicine and
returned to Ireland to finish his training in emergency medicine at Beaumont Hospital.

The first time Dr. Molloy and ‘Rigo’ actually met, however, was during the Rigondeaux-Casey fight week in Dublin and Dr. Molloy thanked him profusely for his donation to the Boston Children’s Foundation (BCF) and International Centre for Disaster Resilience (ICDR), which funded a six-member team for its initial mission to Haiti in January of 2010.

In addition to being a 2-time Olympic gold medalist, the 29-year-old Rigondeaux also was a 7-time Cuban national champion who captured a pair of World Championship titles, including his 2001triumph in Belfast, during an incredible 243-4 amateur career.

“Rigo” made his pro debut May 22, 2009, capturing the NABA super bantamweight title in his third fight as a pro, and last November in only his seventh fight he won a unanimous 12-round decision against Ricardo Cordoba (37-2-2) to become the WBA Interim 122-pound division champion.

The multi-talented southpaw, now fighting out of Miami, has been trained by Ronnie Shields for his past three fights. Rigondeaux is The Ring’s # 6 rated super bantamweight.

Mike Perez, Luis Garcia and Alexei Acosta, Cuban born and bred, but now based in Cork, are three former World Junior Champions with some notable successes already under their collective belts, including victories against a number of Beijing Olympic medal winners.

Garcia is 11-0 9KO
Acoata is 14-0 all by KO.

One of the other Cubans Luis Garcia is absolutely sensational a certain future world champion.

Get yourself a good solicitor.

Someone tell Trap that he is a great central defender quick!!!!!!

Typical a thread that starts off about our one big hope of a heavyweight title in over 100 years ends up about Keith Duffy ...Could have been worse i suppose it could have ended with Ronan Keating

Take a punch from him on the chin and you'll soon find out.

Cop yourself on son, i should know a heavyweight title contender when i see one. I was around them long enough and this kid will be in the top 5 by the time hes 27.