[caption id="attachment_68426" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption=""Square Rings," artwork by County Clare-born artist John Spinks that appeared at Gleason's Gym during the 2011 Dumbo Arts Festival."]
Danny "Little Mac" McDermott returns from a ten-month layoff to face Bryan Abraham at the Schuetzen Park in North Bergen, New Jersey this Thursday night.
The non-title bout is scheduled for six rounds and will headline the first installment of "Tommy Gallagher's Winners Have Scars" boxing series presented by Rich Komissar Promotions.
The series aims to showcase local talent from the tri-state area in competitive, crowd-pleasing fights designed to separate the contenders from the pretenders.
McDermott, who's 32 and 8-3-1 [3 KOs] as a junior welterweight, is a crowd favorite in the North Bergen area. He hopes to break a two-fight skid when he goes up against the 5-9-2 Abraham, a heavy handed customer whose five wins have all come by knockout.
The two have one common opponent in Brian Miller who earned a split points nod over McDermott at Schuetzen Park in March 2010 in what was later hailed as the Garden State's Fight of the Year.
Abraham drew with Miller in the former's pro debut but has since ended the unbeaten records of prospects Johnathan Vazquez, Scotty Burrell and Dominic DeSanto.
McDermott is now training with Tommy Gallagher, the straight-shooting coach from "The Contender" reality series who helped guide Vito Antuofermo to the world middleweight crown.
McDermott and Gallagher work out at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn, and Gallagher is working tirelessly to maximize the talent of the Irish-American warrior.
There will be five other bouts on the card. Tickets, priced $100, $75 and $55, are on sale at the Global Boxing Gym in North Bergen (201-348-3149), Trinity Boxing Gym near Wall Street (212-374-9393), at Jack Demsey's Pub in Midtown Manhattan (212-629-9899), at Gleason's Gym in Brooklyn (718-797-2872 or by calling RKO Boxing at 908-240-2097.
LEE UPDATE
Britain's undefeated Martin Murray is now being touted as a possible opponent for Andy Lee in New York on St. Patrick's Day, according to BoxingScene.com.
The web site reports that Hatton Promotions and Lee's promoter Lou DiBella are discussing matching the two middleweights at Madison Square Garden on March 17. If the bout is made it will be an HBO televised co-feature to Sergio Martinez' WBC Diamond title defense against another Irishman, Matthew Macklin.
"What's better than an Irishman and a British boxer going to war on [St. Patrick's Day]? I think it's a great fight," BoxingScene quotes DiBella.
The undefeated Murray [23-0-1, 10 KOs] holds the Commonwealth and British titles. He battled WBA champion Felix Sturm to a twelve round draw in Germany recently.
Lee [27-1, 19KOs] has been linked with a shot at WBC regular titlist Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., [44-0, 31 KOs].
