Peters thrilled by Dunne bout

Bernard Dunne can truly say that the world is now his oyster, the boxer"s manager, Brian Peters said after Saturday night"s sensational comeback to take the WBA world super bantamweight championship. Dunne - having earlier being floored twice himself - was declared champion in the last second of the 11th round when reigning champion Ricardo Cordoba hit the canvass for the third time in front of the 9,000 strong crowd at the O2 Arena in Dublin. Going into the last two rounds, Dunne was behind on points with all three scoring judges, and was himself literally within a single punch of an automatic stoppage from Canadian referee Hubert Earle. Afterwards, Dunne said his coach Harry Hawkins told him to take each round as it came, and to focus on winning the three minutes. 'Cordoba was coming in the first 30 seconds of each round, having a go, but after that, we were grinding him, we were wearing him down, putting pressure on,' the boxer, who had taken a serious battering in the fifth round, said. However, he didn"t celebrate his win straight away. When the Panamanian failed to get up after the stoppage, Dunne displayed genuine concern for him and later visited him in Beaumont Hospital, where he was kept overnight as he was failing to respond to treatment and was drifting in and out of consciousness. Dunshaughlin man Peters, who also promoted the event, and sponsor Martin Donnelly of Clonee, were the first to congratulate Dunne on his win. 'It"s the greatest win in the history of Irish boxing,' declared Peters. 'We are talking about a fantastic champion in Ricardo Corboda. He beat Celestino Cabellero, who destroyed Steve Mollitor and who is considered the best superbantamweight in the world. I don"t know if anyone realises what a result that was.' The team will take time out to take stock and allow Dunne recover from his injuries. Other Meath links to the event included sponsors Hunky Dorys of Curraha, while the musical razzmatazz was provided by Peters" neighbour Frank McNamara. In the other matches, Andy Lee returned to the ring after an eight-month absence and appeared rusty as he saw off the challenge of German opponent Alexander Sipos in a 10-round points win while Jim Rock also out-pointed Italian Allessio Furlan over 10 rounds. In the amateur bouts, Katie Taylor and Ray Moylette scored wins over Caroline Barry and Robert Gorman, and Olympic medallist Paddy Barnes out-scored Jim Linden.