[caption id="attachment_68290" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="Rising boxer Sean Monaghan with his manager P.J. Kavanagh. "]
Rising Irish fan favorite Sean Monaghan scored a second round KO over Santos Martinez at a packed Madison Square Garden last Saturday to stretch his unbeaten record to 11-0 with eight KOs.
The Long Beach, L.I., light heavyweight floored Martinez in the opening stanza of their scheduled four-rounder. Martinez, a Puerto Rican fighting out of Adrian, Mich., received an eight-count. But a thudding left hook to the ribs in the next round put him down for the count.
The impressive win in the high profile fight on the Miguel Cotto-Antonio Margarito II undercard, was another validation of Monaghan's rising stock.
"I was very comfortable in there. I couldn't have trained harder for this fight," said the light heavyweight, assenting that his sparring sessions with Thomas Hardwick, Will Rosinsky and the Olympic -bound Marcus Browne were more challenging.
In a match between two hard punchers, Monaghan came out swinging, while Martinez sought to jab his way inside. For a minute, the left jab only succeeded in keeping Monaghan at bay, but once he found his range, the home favorite landed a picture perfect right to the tip of the chin that buckled Martinez' knees.
"His eyes were shut and he was dead on his feet," said Monaghan. "In the corner of my eye, I saw the ref and thought he was going to stop it and backed off."
There would be no respite in the next round for the Puerto Rican who was bludgeoned by Monaghan before a left hook ended the contest.
HAPPY MANAGER
"He looked strong and confident and was probably in the best shape that he's been in," a pleased P.J. Kavanagh, Monaghan's manager, said.
"He's an amazing body puncher. I heard the body shot and knew [Martinez] was gone," he added.
Kavanagh said Monaghan was ready to step up to the next level and a possible fight come St. Patrick's Day in March is an Irish light heavyweight title match in the Big Apple with Ciaran Healy.
Out of Belfast, the 13-17-1 [4 KOs] Healy is a one-time Andy Lee victim, having been stopped by the Limerick southpaw in four heats back in 2007.
"I'll be working on it this week to see if it can happen," Kavanagh confirmed.
Should the fight be made, Monaghan would probably have a tune up in February.
LEE PROSPECTS
Andy Lee and his manager-trainer Emanuel Steward, meanwhile, are also still working on the middleweight's proposed title shot at undefeated World Boxing Council [WBC] titlist Julio Cesar Chavez, Jr.
Both Lee and Steward were in New York last weekend to sell HBO on the contest.
"I'm still working on it," the latter told the Echo.
Lee [27-1, 19 KOs] is ranked number one at 160-pounds by the WBO, number two by the WBA and fifth by the WBC.
Chavez, Jr., 44-0 with 31 KOs is the son of the Mexican ring legend of the same name. He's best remembered by Irish fight fans for his 12-round points win over John Duddy in what turned out to be the Derry Destroyer's last pro fight in June 2010.
