NEW YORK – Feargal McCrory bounced back from his first professional defeat, stopping Keenan Carbajal in eight rounds Sunday here at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.
McCrory, 17-1 (9 KOs), gave his Irish faithful a reason to cheer, dropping Carbajal twice before referee Arthur Mercante Jnr stopped the bout at the 23-second mark of the eighth round.
The victory didn’t come without challenges, however.
The 32-year-old McCrory, of Coalisland, Northern Ireland, now living in New York, had to overcome a knockdown in the fourth round, plus a cut over his right eye, before his power punching overwhelmed Carbajal, a 33-year-old from Phoenix.
“It’s St. Patty’s Day – we all need a little drama in here,” said McCrory, who was fighting for the first time since losing by eighth-round stoppage to Lamont Roach Jnr last June in a challenge for the WBA junior lightweight title.
“The knockdown, he hit me with a good shot,” Feargal said. “My team did a great job from there on. In the gym, they taught me how to deal with adversity. We had a great game plan for this fight that we worked on in the gym, and tonight we executed it to perfection.”
Fighting in front of his adopted hometown fans the day before St. Patrick’s Day, McCrory came out aggressively, putting Carbajal on the defensive with heavy right hooks and body punches. Carbajal lost a point for holding in the second round, which served to encourage McCrory’s aggression.
A left uppercut in the third round caused Carbajal’s legs to wobble, though he was able to avoid a knockdown, while two trips to the canvas were ruled pushes.
Carbajal’s fortunes began to turn around in the fourth round after he landed a right hand, which came as a counter after McCrory missed a left uppercut along the ropes, landed on McCrory, sending him back first to the canvas. Carbajal found a consistent target on McCrory with his straight right hands, which kept McCrory’s aggression in check in the fifth round. A cut opened up over McCrory’s eye in the sixth round, possibly due to a headbutt, which gave him more reason to worry.
Sensing the need to turn the fight round, McCrory began sitting down more on his punches. A counter left hand rocked Carbajal to his boots, sending him into the ropes, where a series of unanswered lefts evened the knockdown tally. Carbajal beat the count and survived the round, but the ringside doctor wanted to take one more look at Carbajal before sending him out for the eighth.
Carbajal lasted less than 30 seconds into the next round, with another series of overhand lefts sending him back down, at which point the fight was stopped.
McCrory-Carbajal was the co-featured bout underneath the Callum Walsh vs Dean Sutherland headliner, which aired live on UFC Fight Pass.
Emmet Brennan made it 2-for-2 against Kevin Cronin, winning an unpopular decision over his fellow Irishman in a 10-round super middleweight fight.
All three judges scored it 98-92 for the 33-year-old Brennan, 5-0 (1 KO), of Dublin. Cronin, 28, of County Kerry, dropped to 8-3-1 (4 KOs).
The fight was a rematch of their bout last September in Dublin, which Brennan won by split decision to capture the Celtic super middleweight title.
The crowd booed the decision afterwards, preferring the effort of the more aggressive and active Kronin, though Brennan felt that this performance brought closure to their unfinished business.
“The first fight wasn’t a robbery,” Brennan said. “He’s a warrior and he came to get it again. This fight was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was our game plan. We were more prepared for this fight. The first one seems like we were not prepared at all.”
“Now I’m 6-0. It was my first 10-rounder, and now I’m looking for bigger fights and bigger opportunities. Hopefully, Dana White and the TKO Group will see that I’m ready and they can make it happen. The first fight didn’t feel like a win with all the noise that went on afterwards. I’m glad I had the chance to prove myself. I feel like I had another gear that I haven’t reached yet.”
Brennan was a 2020 Irish Olympian, losing in the preliminaries to Dilshodbek Ruzmetov, of Uzbekistan.
Irish eyes were not smiling on Thomas Carty in his New York debut, as the southpaw heavyweight from Dublin suffered his first professional defeat under dubious circumstances.
The 29-year-old Carty suffered a knee injury midway through the second round of his fight with Dajuan Calloway, collapsing to the canvas without a punch being landed. Carty bravely attempted to fight on, but he was unable to navigate the ring as his 409lbs opponent stalked him. After his third fall, the referee ruled Carty down, despite no punch landing. The ringside doctor ended the fight in between rounds, ruling Colloway, 11-3 (9 KOs), of Warrensville Heights, Ohio, the victor.
Carty, who weighed 255lbs a day before, couldn’t contain his emotions as he sobbed in the corner, with a trainer holding an ice pack to his left knee. Carty left the ring on a stretcher, while Calloway couldn’t break a smile while being announced the victor.
“First time he came in and I hit him with a right hand and he went down, but they didn’t call a knockdown,” said Calloway. “The second time he came in, he was hurt and I hit him and he went down, and they called that a knockdown.”
The circumstances of the fight were reminiscent of another Irish southpaw’s New York debut, as Joseph Ward lost his professional debut in 2019 after suffering a knee injury in the same building.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America.