Tommy’s title tilt’s thwarted
TOMMY MCCARTHY’S bid for the WBA Inter-continental title ended in the second defeat of his career to England’s Richard Riakporhe in Peterborough on Saturday night.
The Belfast cruiserweight, who lost the 2009 and 2010 Irish finals to Olympic finalist Ken Egan, was stopped in the fourth round of the scheduled 10-rounder at the East of England Arena.
Mccarthy, 28, looked comfortable up to the point of the stoppage but it all began to unravel after he was wobbled by a big right from the Londoner.
Riakporhe, seeing his opponent in trouble, found the target with two more big shots with Mccarthy visiting the canvas before another flurry of punches saw referee Mike Alexander call a halt.
Mccarthy drops to 13 wins from 15 outings after the reversal while unbeaten Riakporhe improves to nine wins.
“A lot of people think I’ve just got power and I don’t have a boxing brain. Tommy called me a novice in the build-up and I took that personal, I wanted to show him I could box,” said Riakporhe.
Meanwhile, Dubliner Jay Byrne retained his Celtic super-welter belt on a majority decision over Scotland’s Stefan Sanderson on Saturday.
The fight was scored 98-93, 96-94 for Byrne over the Paisley southpaw with one judge seeing a 95-95 draw after 10 rounds in Turnberry.
18 16
KIERAN DIXON helped sink champions Wigan as Super League new boys London Broncos produced the shock of the season so far.
The Hemel-raised winger scorched away for a long-range try early in the second half to open up a 16-10 lead (below).
And he later added a penalty to create an eight-point gap, ensuring Tony Clubb’s 58thminute converted try was not enough to get the wounded Warriors out of jail.
This was Wigan’s fourth defeat in five matches and coach Adrian Lam – given the reins until Shaun Edwards takes over next year – was fuming.
“I’m really disappointed,” he aid. “Our halves, full-back and backs let us down. Another disappointing part was a few of our senior players not owning the game when they needed to step up.
“We’re not winning and so there’s a fair bit of pressure coming down.”
Wigan made a strong start, with forwards
Liam Paisley and Willie
Isa muscling over for tries in the opening 20 minutes.
London Wigan
With Zak Hardaker adding a conversion, they led 10-0 and looked to be cruising to a second win of the year.
But the Broncos turned the game on its head, Eddie Battye and Matty Gee typifying their spirited effort with quickfire tries before half-time.
Dixon converted both to give them a 12-10 lead at the break.
And minutes after the restart, the winger scooped up a loose ball and turned on the afterburners to go the length of the pitch and score.
While Lam braced himself for a backlash from Wigan fans, Broncos coach Danny Ward was trying to keep a lid on celebrations after a “special” victory. Ward said: “I don’t want to get too carried away. We’ve had some big wins in the last 12 months and hopefully the boys can get some confidence from this. But beating the champions at home is special.
“I hope people talk about the team spirit we have here. We know we have to be on every week – every player has to be nine out of 10 at this level.”
Of Dixon’s try, he added: “There were a lot of key moments, but when Kieran got a bit of space in front of him he’s unstoppable.”
Defeat leaves Wigan on zero points although their appeal against a two-point deduction for breaking the salary cap – will be heard tomorrow.
Castleford St Helens Warrington Salford
Hull Wakefield Catalans Hull KR London Leeds Wigan Huddersf’d P W D L F A Pts 4 4 0 0 118 44 8 4 4 0 0 99 56 8 4 3 0 1 108 63 6 5 3 0 2 100 108 6 4 2 0 2 85 74 4 4 2 0 2 99 96 4 4 2 0 2 66 74 4 5 2 0 3 92 112 4 5 2 0 3 78 126 4 5 1 0 4 108 136 2 4 1 0 3 84 79 0 4 0 0 4 52 121 0 Huddersfield Hull FC
28 8 JOSH GRIFFIN spearheaded Lee Radford’s half-time reshuffle to make it backto-back wins for Hull FC.
Centre Griffin (above) was switched to full-back when Jake Connor was forced off with a knee injury, and finished with two tries as the visitors overcame an interval deficit.
Radford said: “We came out in another gear and changed the mindset of how we were playing.
“Griff is not a ball-playing full-back, and we wanted to play a bit more direct and straighten up. He did exactly what we asked for – he’s not going to find a pass, but he’ll go through you.”
Radford’s side trailed 8-6