{"id":15044,"date":"2025-10-24T15:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15044\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T15:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:21:08","slug":"celtic-clash-at-gaelic-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/15044\/","title":{"rendered":"Celtic Clash at Gaelic Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Irish have been filling out New York boxing venues for well over a century – the inaugural \u2018Celtic Clash\u2019 at Gaelic Park on September 26 was certainly no exception. The \u2018green army\u2019 made their presence felt on a special night for the Irish boxing community.<\/p>\n

The Irish fans waved tricolors and broke out into “Ol\u00e9 Ol\u00e9” chants during the walkouts. The atmosphere was reminiscent of the raucous crowds that had carried Katie Taylor to victory over Amanda Serrano in Madison Square Garden last July.<\/p>\n

The crowd extended its support to the Irish American fighters on the card. Kyle McGrath, whose father is Irish, was uplifted by the support. \u201cWhen you carry that last name, you definitely feel the support, especially on a card like tonight.”<\/p>\n

The \u2018home crowd\u2019 was not enough for McGrath as he came up short against Cyrus Gordon in the 187-pound main event fight. The crowd relished the bruising spectacle with neither fighter backing down. Gordon eventually overpowered McGrath and was awarded a unanimous decision.<\/p>\n

\"Cyrus3\"Gallery\"\/<\/p>\n

Cyrus Cooper (left) and Kyle McGrath (right) trading blows in the heavyweight main event. <\/p>\n

Marty Kelly, from Newcastle, Co Down, was making his amateur debut in the welterweight division. His family and friends travelled from across the country just to see him fight.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friends are coming from everywhere. I\u2019m just happy everyone is getting together,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The event featured 12 bouts with fighters from across the city\u2019s boroughs. Jorge Zapata, a Brooklyn fighter of Puerto Rican heritage, referred to the Irish-Puerto Rican rivalry that developed after the Taylor-Serrano trilogy: “You know there\u2019s a little Puerto Rican and Irish rivalry.”<\/p>\n

\u201cYou guys got a lot of pride. I respect you guys,” he added.<\/p>\n

Zapata managed to pull one back for Puerto Rico with a knockout victory over newcomer Marty Kelly.<\/p>\n

\"Shane3\"Gallery\"\/<\/p>\n

Shane Dorgan (right) on the way to his first amateur victory over German Pixtay Garcia.<\/p>\n

Timmy Egan restored Irish pride with his unanimous decision defeat of Gaetano Di Chiara. Fresh from his Ringmasters victory in April, Egan deployed his superior movement to outclass his heavy-swinging opponent. His coach Donal Wade, a Roscommon native, credits Egan\u2019s unique style with his Irish background.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of American fighters want a war, but Timmy just doesn\u2019t get involved,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Once the fights had finished, many spectators stayed lapping up the atmosphere as The Cranberries blared out of the speakers. Star Boxing promoter Joe De Guardia was pleased with the turnout. “We had a good crowd. It was entertaining with the music and the Irish flags,” he said.<\/p>\n

The fight card had initially featured a mouth-watering encounter between Yonkers fighter Harley Burke and former Irish Olympian Emmet Brennan. The fight was postponed due to scheduling issues, though Brennan hinted that the fight could well go ahead next Summer.<\/p>\n

“It might make more sense to do it and get it back on the pitch,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m thinking 2026 will be a huge event,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

At 33, Brennan is no spring chicken and is already making plans for retirement. \u201cMy goal when I finish is to manage Irish fighters in New York,\u201d he said. After Katie Taylor and Callum Walsh\u2019s fights in Madison Square Garden this year, Brennan is confident that \u201cthere is an appetite to push Irish boxing on.”<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s probably what I\u2019m looking at three, four years down the road,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

New York GAA Chairman Sean Price is hoping to host more events as the club looks to raise funds for an on-site community center.<\/p>\n

“We’ll do boxing, we’ll do MMA, we\u2019ll do anything we think that can reach out to the neighborhood and get more people in here,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Monaghan man Mark McGuigan is a former amateur boxer living in the Bronx who is glad to have more local boxing events.<\/p>\n

“It\u2019s a great place to have it here, better than going down to Madison Square Garden,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish have been filling out New York boxing venues for well over a century – the inaugural…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,11041,11040,11039,9,24,63,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-15044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-irish-entertainment","tag-irish-news","tag-irishcentral","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}