Brendan Galbraith – The highly rated Irish-based Cuban sensation Alexei ‘The Hurricane’ Acosta (8 stone 9 IIbs) recorded a second round TKO over the tough and experienced former Commonwealth and British Title contender, Sean ‘Short Fuse’ Hughes (8 stone 10 IIbs) at the Holiday Inn, Belfast, Northern Ireland. For the 21-year-old Cuban, now based full-time at the Kronk Gym in Belfast under the guidance of trainer, Tony Dunlop, this was his first appearance in front of a Belfast crowd.
Bantamweight, Alexei Acosta stirs hype and expectation in equal amounts and this emanates from his pedigree as a former World Amateur Champion and his explosive introduction to the pro ranks. Going into the Hughes fight, the 21 year old had impressively concluded all of his 8 pro fights inside the distance and all within 3 rounds.
Acosta’s challenger for his 9th pro fight was a very good step in class. Sean Hughes is a former English Super Bantamweight Champion. He lost in the 10th round of a competitive challenge to Jason Booth for the Commonwealth Title last year and shares a win and loss with Esham Pickering – the latter being a failed attempt for the British Title..
The natural pre-fight question was: Can orthodox, Acosta sustain his explosive KO record over the tough and experienced southpaw, Sean Hughes or will he be forced to revert to his boxing skills to target a point’s win? It is always interesting and usually insightful, to see how a hyped young prospect deals with a tough and experienced opponent.
As Acosta, making his Belfast debut, entered the setting of a packed house of 400 fight fans he was given a rousing reception by the appreciative Belfast fans. Parallels have be drawn with Venezuela’s former WBA Welterweight Champion, Crisanto Espana, who had seven successful years, from 1988-1995, in Belfast as part of Barney Eastwood’s stable, and went on to fight 15 times in Belfast, including a successful defence of his world title. Espana was a crowd favourite in his adopted home of Belfast, and the early signs are that Belfast-based Alexei Acosta will follow suit.
Sean Hughes, who entered the ring first, looked confident and ready to lock horns with his Cuban opponent.
The bell sounded for the first round and the early signs were that Acosta had indeed signed up for an interesting test from Hughes. Hughes and Acosta both started at a frantic pace – which served to engage the attentive audience with an intriguing opening round. Acosta, living up to his ‘Hurricane’ alias launched several flurries of combos to the head that forced Hughes to cover up. Hughes responded with his own head and body combos – momentarily forcing Acosta onto the back foot. Acosta, warming to the battle, bobbed and weaved and evaded much Hughes good work and continued to throw more of his fast-handed combinations. The remainder of the first round was very open and both men missed several wild shots. In an exchange towards the end of the first round, Hughes managed to score a double right combination upstairs. The first was a close round to call, as a lot of punches landed on gloves, and both men scored their own shots.
The second round started off at a similar pace, but this time Acosta took command by using good footwork to find his range and raid Hughes with impressive salvos to the head and body. The action culminated with Acosta landing a strong head shot and pinning Hughes on the ropes, were he launched a blistering, unanswered 8-10 punch flurry that prompted referee David Erving to stop the fight at 1 minute 33 seconds into the second round. Hughes, who was marked under his left eye, complained at the stoppage; whilst his trainer was livid at the referee. The stoppage was arguably a little premature as Hughes was defending himself and did not seem to be badly hurt – even though several of Acosta’s hard shots were penetrating his guard and body. Nevertheless, an unanswered barrage of cumulative punishment at the hands of Acosta was enough to seal Hughes fate.
The early stoppage in the 2nd round clearly impressed Acosta’s manager, Cork-man, Gary Hyde, who leap into the ring to embrace his Cuban sensation. On the evidence of this performance, it is clear the Acosta is to be a future star. Acosta, despite having over 200 amateur fights, is still learning his trade in the pro game and will undoubtedly develop more as he is tested with better opposition. The stand-out characteristics of Acosta’s performance in Belfast are his lightening hand speed, the variation of angles that he manages when launching his stinging flurries and his slick footwork to retreat after he has delivered his shots. In addition, Acosta looks in peak condition and this evident when after he had delivered numerous furious combinations – he hardly even seemed to draw breath.
After the fight, Acosta’s manager, Gary Hyde was glowing with praise for Acosta’s performance:
“I thought it was excellent, the kid he was fighting is a very good opponent, we knew he was going to have a go.
It was an excellent step up. Sean Hughes is no mug. In his last fight didn’t he go 9 rounds with a former world champion – so he is no mug and the only other one to ever stop him early in the fight was Bernard Dunne. I was delighted with that performance.”
Hyde, also revealed that Acosta only stepped up to Super Bantamweight at the last moment:
And Alexei was ready to fight Bantam this week – he was in competition for the WBA International Title and then he stepped up to Super Bantam to fight this kid. This kid was still 2 pounds over that – so on the morning of the fight Alexei had a big breakfast and he was way under weight – but he showed his form – he is a true banger”.
And what is next for Acosta?
“First he will take a rest and relax for a couple of months – he has been very busy for the last four months and he has is now 9 – 9 KO and he going to take it easy and he will be back in February – he will be fighting in the States in February”
Gary Hyde, who manages a trio of highly-rated Cubans, Luis Garcia, Mike Perez and Alexei Acosta, confirmed that all three Cubans will be fighting in the US next year – both on the east coast and west coast. However, he was quick to point out that they will couple that will a continuation of appearances in Ireland.
“They are Irish Cubans – so they are always going to be linked back to Ireland and they are always going to be coming back here as this is their second home”.
That is certainly good news for Irish fight fans and at the very least the Belfast boxing fans will be hoping to see more of Alexei Acosta on Belfast cards next year.
Shortly before the introduction of the Acosta-Hughes main event there was a more sombre moment to mark the passing of popular Belfast referee Barney Wilson with the traditional ringing of the ten bells out of respect for his memory and contribution to the sport. Barney Wilson who had passed away the previous morning, aged 67, after a long battle with illness. The silence was impeccably observed for the ever present official who was an ex-boxer himself and walked the canvass – overseeing world champions such as Barry McGuigan, Dave Boy McAuley, Belfast-based Venezuelan WBA Welterweight Champion Crisanto Espana, as well as other Northern Ireland stars such as Ray Close, Sam Storey, Neil Sinclair and a long list of other boxing names.