Timmy Egan defeated Gaetano Di Chiara for the second time in four months last weekend to take another step closer to the MSG Ring Masters’ 165-pound Open final. The Dundalk transplant cruised to an unanimous points decision over the teenager at the Brickhouse Boxing and Fitness Club in Yaphank on Long Island.
“The fight went exactly how I expected,” Egan, last year’s Ring Masters 165-pound Novice winner, told the Echo. “I trained appropriately. I was ready to go.”
The Bua Boxing Club fighter came out for the first round pressing Di Chiara, who’s 19. Out of Lake Grove, also on Long Island, Di Chiara obliged Egan by pressing forward as well, throwing punches. But he was falling into a trap.
“He was coming. I caught him with nice counter shots -- the whole way through the first round,” said Egan, who’s 31. “I dominated him the first round. Second round, he came with a little bit more pressure, which I dealt with quickly and then yeah, I took the second round, and third round I controlled the entire fight. Very comfortable, very happy with it.”
He credited his hard training for the victory saying, “my training has gone a long way. I felt really good.”
His trainer and Bua Boxing Club owner Donal Ward was ecstatic.
“Yeah, Timmy done well again. He’s getting more controlled [and] improving every time,” he said. “The fight kind of went as I expected. Once he found his range, he made him miss and picked him off. We kind of knew [that] he’d come rushing forward so Timmy really focused on picking his shots.”
Under this year’s double elimination format of the semifinals, Egan now needs one more win to reach the 165-pound Open final scheduled for April 25 at Madison Square Garden. That will be against another 19-year-old, one Carmine Gentile who’d defeated fellow nationally ranked middleweight Jaden Harvey the night before. The date and venue will be announced later.
“This guy [Gentile] is very good. But we hope to have a good game plan for him,” said Ward. “We're gonna work on the game plan that we think works best, and hopefully it works.
“[Timmy] is in the semifinal now, so if he wins this he'll be in the Garden [the final] and if he loses this he will be fighting the winner of the losers bracket which has the likes of Kevin Torres, Jaden Harvey and Di Chiara, the guy he just [beat].”
Egan, who’s now 11-4, echoed the challenge Gentile, from the NYC Cops & Kids club, poses and said: “He's got 65 fights. He's very, very experienced.”
“At this level, 165 [pounds], they're all quality operators as we've [seen],” Ward added. “They all fight each other regularly, they all beat each other regularly. So, you just gotta be prepared as best as you can and hopefully on the day it works out. But Timmy’s focused, he's focused, he's looking forward to a couple of weeks of training. The thing is to give ourselves the best chance and we'll see what happens on the day.”
Egan’s other win in this year’s Ring Masters was over Fabian Cordero in January.
GARDA DATE
This Friday’s International Battle of the Badges card at Madison Square Garden that includes four fighters from the Garda and the Tipperary Fire and Rescue service will be broadcast live on the iVB Boxing Network on YouTube. Former world heavyweight title contender Gerry Cooney will be the commentator. John Duddy, a former world middleweight contender himself, will be a guest on the telecast.
Cruiserweight Paddy Clavin, a two-time World Police Fire Games Gold Medalist from Tipperary Fire and Rescue, leads the Irish contingent on the annual show. Heavyweight Dean Griffin, also from Tipperary; and Garda middleweights Daragh Gilroy and Eoin O'Connor are the Irish boxers on the card.
The show includes FDNY fighters in action against first responders from other cities and London, England.
Following is the order of fights. The First bout is scheduled for 7:45 p.m.:
1] Fourteen-year-old category: featherweight – Chris Abernante [Champion Breed Boxing] vs. Axel Almazo [Park Hill Cops & Kids];
2] Light heavyweight - Gavin Conner [Denver FD] vs. Dominik Burridge [London Fire Brigade, UK];
3] Heavyweight Dean Griffin [Tipperary F&R] vs Jason Bergrin [FDNY Lad. Co. 5];
4 Middleweight Eoin O'Connor [Garda] vs. Oliver Patrouch [FDNY Eng. 50. ];
5] Heavyweight - Chris Puch [FDNY Lad. Co. 9] vs. Kristian Latiker [Atlanta PD];
6] Cruiserweight - Sam Kelly [FDNY Eng. 1] vs. Shane Mendoza [London Fire Brigade];
7] Light heavyweights - James Gennari [FDNY Lad. Co. 24] vs. Mikael Stone [Atlanta PD];
8] Middleweight - Daragh Gilroy [Garda] vs. Sean Dillon [FDNY Eng. 283];
9] Welterweight - Nicole Malpeso [FDNY Eng. 158] vs. Meg Kilroe [Children’s Hospital, Boston, Mass.];
10] Middleweight - Chris Paladino [Yonkers FD Eng. 312] vs. Carlos Sandoval [Harris County PD, Tx];
11] Welterweight - Jimmy Howell [FDNY Lad. Co. 155] vs. Gary Nieves [NYC Dept. of Sanitation];
12] Cruiserweight - Rich Weinstein [FDNY Eng. 286] vs. Craig Serino [Massport Fire & Rescue];
13] Cruiserweight - Paddy Clavin [Tipperary Fire and Rescue] vs. Kyle McGrath [Rockland County EMS]; and
14] Super heavyweight - Jonathan Bermeo [NYC Dept. of Sanitation] vs. Obi Nwachukwu [Rock PD, Tx].http://www.fdnyboxing.org
Tickets, pegged at $50, $70 and $120 for ringside, are on sale at http://www.fdnyboxing.org.
Proceeds from the tournament will go to the Tunnels to Towers Foundation, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research, the FDNY Foundation and others. Call 917 282-8727 for corporate or business sponsorship opportunities, or email Bobby McGuire at fdnyboxing@gmail.com.
