DUBBO fighter Joel Galea is on the cusp of turning professional after beating Toronto’s Daniel Ford for the NSW light middleweight title at Dubbo RSL Club on Friday night.
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Galea beat Ford with a popular points decision, handing Ford his first loss from 11 fights.
With seven amateur wins under his belt from nine bouts and the scalp of former Australian champion Ford, Galea’s trainer John Hallford, who was the promoter of last Friday’s card, said the time was right for his charge to look at the professional ranks.
“We’ve still got a few things to work out for Joel but hopefully he will be pro by the time my next event comes around at Wellington in February,” Hallford said.
“He won well on Friday night and he has a good record so hopefully we can get that happening.”
Twelve fights were held on the program, with Hallford working in conjunction with Dubbo boxer Robert ‘Gummy’ Toomey to put together a show that saw 11 of the bouts decided by the judges.
Only Cowra fighter Frank Bright’s win over Nyngan’s Dylan Franklin came via stoppage.
“We were really happy with how the night went. When you’re matching fights you want to put on even contests and that is what we ended up with,” Toomey said.
“We had a few late pullouts which was disappointing but we got a good crowd and some good fights.
“The cameraman that filmed it goes to shows all over NSW and he said it was the second-best show he has seen which is good for an amateur night.”
Seven Dubbo fighters took to the ring on the night with five - Galea, Shane Konz, Matt Plain, Adam Burton and Pat Mathews - coming away victorious.
Burton in particular was a star, taking his record to three wins from as many fights with a split decision win over Toronto’s Adam Brownlee.
“Adam is a guy in his mid-30s who came to the gym just wanting to get fit and he has now won his first three fights,” Toomey said.
“There was a bit of controversy over the decision but the judges scored it the way they did and Adam got the win, which was good for him.”
In the other feature bout of the evening, former Sudanese fighter Manyang Dut won the Western NSW light middleweight title when he outpointed Nyngan’s Brad Howard while Narromine’s Peter Cusack gave his 100-plus fans some excitement, despite losing his first fight to Dubbo’s Matt Plain.
“Peter Cusack’s nickname is ‘Beaver’ and he had five tables of people from Narromine come over to watch and they all had T-shirts on supporting him which was great,” Toomey said.
“He got knocked down inside the first 40 seconds or so but he got up and gave it to Matt Plain for a while but in the end Matt was just a little bit too good.”