Spike' O'Sullivan

Tonight in Brooklyn's Barclays Center, Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan will finally achieve his lifelong dream and fight for a boxing world title.

And for me, it is more about the journey and those who have supported me the whole way through than anything else.’ But the journey for me has been unbelievable. After all the ups and downs during his 14 years as a professional fighter, it feels like O’Sullivan is getting his just rewards.

Erislandy Lara and Gary O'Sullivan are set to face off in the ring on Saturday, May 28 in a lightweight title bout. We break down when the fight starts and ...

- Luis Arias vs. - Erislandy Lara vs. The main event of the evening will feature Gervonta Davis taking on Rolando Romero for the WBA regular lightweight title.

Erislandy Lara & Gary O'Sullivan meet for the WBA middleweight world title on Saturday at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. See our fight picks here.

Erislandy Lara vs. Spike presents a different, more dangerous opponent, and Lara must adopt a smart game plan if he is to get the win expected of him. That won’t throw Lara off his game plan, as he’s experienced enough not to be drawn into a shootout. Lara enters this bout with a professional record of 28 wins against three defeats and three draws, with 16 wins coming inside the distance. He can enjoy the occasion knowing the crowd is against him but is completely confident in his ability to shock the boxing world. He’ll arrive in New York knowing he’s up against it here, but confident he has the skills to win the title.

NEW YORK – Erislandy Lara returned to the site of his last competitive fight Saturday night and defeated another huge underdog.

A straight left and a right hook by Lara backed O’Sullivan into the ropes several seconds before the fifth round ended. Lara snuck several punches through O’Sullivan’s gloves in the second and third rounds. Referee Benjy Esteves allowed Lara to land one more punch before he stepped between them and called a halt to the action 23 seconds into the eighth round.

Spike O'Sullivan has been stopped in New York – but the Irishman did not go down without a fight. The.

Lara approached things patiently but began to land huge single shots as the round progressed. The big shot came in the closing seconds, another straight left, that seemed to leave Spike out standing up and he tumbled backwards to the canvas. A game showing, there may be opportunities for him at 154lbs but nothing is for certain. Of course, Spike himself is no spring chicken at 37 and was fighting above his preferred weight class but came into this bout with optimism. ‘The American Dream’, Lara has had quite the career since defecting from Cuba in 2008. Rising unsteadily, the Celtic Warriors man was able to see out the round and he came out aggressively in the fifth, a last stand, perhaps.

Erislandy Lara, Jesus Ramos, and Eduardo Ramirez all picked up wins on the Davis vs Romero undercard.

A decent fight, very competitive, and the winner fair. I think with the job he did tonight, they owe him a legit decent fight next; someone like Sergey Lipinets, maybe, would be a good fit. I said when this fight was announced that it was the exact right sort of fight for Ramos, the 21-year-old junior middleweight prospect. This was his fourth straight terribly one-sided matchup, both on paper and in the ring. The 37-year-old Irish battler was dropped in round four, hurt badly at the end of round seven, and stopped early in the eighth as soon as he got hurt again. But it’s also time to see Lara in against a decent opponent again.

Cork fighter is knocked down in the fourth round but defiantly stands tall until an eighth-round stoppage brings his WBA Middleweight challenge to an end.

Lara seemed content to take shots and bide his time and in the fourth, that slow and patient tactic paid off when he sent O’Sullivan to the canvas. He also complained to his corner of a burst eardrum. Lara always had a lethal left jab and hook in his armoury but seemed unwilling to deploy it.

Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan was unable to claim a secondary version of the WBA middleweight title after being outclassed then stopped in the eighth round by ...

In the main event, Gervonta Davis retained his WBA ‘world’ lightweight crown with a sixth-round stoppage of fellow American Rolando Romero. O’Sullivan was repeatedly troubled by his opponent’s left hook and it was that punch that led to him stumbling backwards into the ropes seconds into the eighth before Lara clinically finished things off. Gennady Golovkin, who it was announced earlier this week is set to step up to super-middleweight to challenge Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez in September, is the organisation’s ‘super’ champion.

The 37-year-old was stopped in the eight round by his Cuban opponent Erislandy Lara at the Barclays Centre in Brooklyn.

“I'm a smart boxer, I'm a slick boxer. “He was a tough boxer,” Lara said afterwards. But Lara (29-3-3, 17KOs) landed a heavy shot on O'Sullivan before the bell in the seventh and continued the onslaught in the eighth before the referee stepped in to end the contest.

THERE was no joy for Cork's Gary 'Spike' O'Sullivan in his world title fight in New York last night. Thirty-nine-year Cuban-American southpaw Erislandy Lara ...

This pattern continued in the sixth when a right-hook knocked O’Sullivan off balance but again he survived. Lara rocked O’Sullivan again late in the fifth but couldn’t drop him. But sensing his opportunity, the defending champion went to work early in the eighth.