Cork boxer Steven Cairns delivers another brilliant display to defend WBA title

Cork professional boxer Steven Cairns successfully defended his WBA Continental Lightweight title when he stopped fellow Irish man Senan Kelly at a Queensberry Promotion Event at the 3Arena in Dublin last Saturday night.

'The Irish Takeover' remains unbeaten to go 15-0, with 10 of these fights going by way of knockout and he had the commentators on DAZN TV gushing with praise during the fight.

That was a huge test for Cairns against a very game Kelly, who was the bigger fighter and had only one loss coming in. However, the Cork man put in another masterful performance to send his opponent to the canvas early in the fifth round and then broke Kelly down. That gave the referee no choice but to step in and stop the fight.

The Cork man started the fight working behind his jab and rocked Kelly with a heavy right hook body shot and followed up with an overhead left to the head to control the opening exchanges. Kelly, to be fair, was very brave, but Cairns kept his composure to finish the round well on top.

Cairns started the second round with a lovely combination to Kelly’s head and body and then landed a powerful overhand right to the head of the Leixlip man. Kelly did have some success with some big body shots of his own, but Cairns finished the round well with a flurry of powerful shots to win the round.

The Cork man’s class came to the fore at the start of the third round and was able to glide in to hurt Kelly with his fast hands and some superb footwork, before his opponent was able to land anything of significance. Kelly did catch Cairns with a powerful right to the head but he took it well and finished the round with another combination to win the round.

The start to the fourth round was a bit scrappy as the tempo dropped a little. Cairns suffered a cut to his left eye after a clash of heads that gave Kelly a little confidence. However, Cairns regrouped to finish the round in style by landing a flurry of combinations that certainly caught the judges' eyes.

Driven

David Coldwell, his trainer, wasn’t very happy with his fighter in his corner and gave him instructions not to get too comfortable and keep to their game plan. Cairns took every word from Coldwell on board and came out for the fifth round like a man on a mission. 

His composure came to the fore again and he had Kelly on the back foot with his left jab and when he landed a crisp right uppercut to the head, he had his opponent on the seat of his pants only after 30 seconds of the round. He then showed all his experience by not getting too excited and went after the body to break Kelly down. The referee stepped in 25 seconds later to call a halt to the fight.

He was very emotional afterwards and thanked the big crowd of Cork supporters who witnessed another superb performance.

"I just want to thank all those wonderful people here again tonight for the incredible support and I am so grateful to everyone who traveled all the way from my hometown in Cork.

"I love coming home to fight. I left Cork as a very raw 18-year-old and lived in the gym for two years to get where I am today.

I have a great trainer in Dave and an excellent manager in Brian Peters so I will be expertly guided by these two very experienced men. 

"Hopefully in time I can headline a big show in Cork in the near future."