Harley Burke overcame 17 months of ring rust and a first ever trip to the canvas to outbox Canadian battler Tevin Terrance at the Paramount in Huntington, Long Island, last weekend. The Galway-born super middleweight with a rep as a banger jabbed his way to a six round unanimous points after bouncing back from a flash knock down in the opening stanza.
“It was a check hook,” Burke said “I put my right hand down while I was throwing a [left] jab or something. Right away I was like OK. I'm rusty.
“You tell yourself in the lead up to a fight that there's no such thing as ring rust – it's all mental. But I got dropped at that, I mean I responded I got right up, I was good. I’ve never been dropped even in the gym – first time.”
With seven knockouts on his now 9-0 ledger, Burke was up in a flash and reminding himself to follow his pre-fight game plan of applying his brains over his heart.
“So, when I got up, I said just stick to the game plan,” he said.
The plan was to use his height [seven inches] and reach advantage to outbox Terrance behind the jab.
“I was landing every jab. I kept that up for six rounds. He probably won the first two [rounds], I was just getting my feet under me, I didn’t want to get up there and start brawling with him after I got dropped. I hit him with almost every jab. Good hard jabs.”
Burke stepped it up in the fourth round, hurting his man.
“I hurt him pretty good, I started letting right hands go towards the end,” he said. “Coincidentally, [his] mouthpiece came out – veteran move. And they took their sweet time putting it back.”
Overall, Burke, who’s 29, was satisfied with his outing on Joe DeGuardia’s popular Star Boxing card that attracted several hundred of the Irish-American’s enthusiastic fans.
“I did three rounds in 28 months, so I was happy to get six under me,” Burke noted. “It wasn't pretty, but I'm happy with the night. I learned more from that than I would with a first round KO.”
Trainer Ryan O’Leary, who’s worked with Burke from the amateurs, thought his charge was too harsh on himself.
“I thought [Burke] won basically every round except for you, know, when he got dropped,” said O’Leary. “He's giving the other guy credit. He outboxed the guy in the second [round]. The other guy wasn't landing anything consequential and Harley was just picking him apart.
“The kid [Terrance] came to win, he didn't come to lay down. He just got two draws back-to-back against some decent opponents, you know that's probably what we needed.”
Terrance, who’s 31 and from Quebec, was returning to Huntington after his split points draw with another Irish fighter -- John McDonagh, the nephew of former professional heavyweight Seamus McDonagh – in a four rounder last May.
BRENNAN FIGHT
Undefeated Dubliner Emmet Brennan [4-0, 1 KO] meets seasoned Argentine Victor Hugo Exner [11-17-3, 5 KOs] at the Melrose Ballroom, in Long Island City, Queens on Dec. 6.
“He’s coming off a draw only a few weeks ago against a lad that had 17 wins and 4 losses, so that's a good draw for him, which would show he's probably in a little bit of form at the moment. So I'm not taking him lightly,” said Brennan.
The fight is scheduled for eight rounds at a catchweight of 170 pounds.
Brennan’s last fight was a split points decision over Kevin Cronin at the 3Arena in Dublin last September for the vacant Boxing Union of Ireland [BUI] Celtic super middle title.
The 33-year-old also holds the BUI light heavyweight belt.
Tickets for Brennan-Exner are available on Instagram at: emmetbrennan; and from the following establishments: the Wolfhound Bar [Astoria], the Wild Goose Bar [Woodside], Dave Lacey at the Layla Bar [Brooklyn] and Joe Byrne at Jack Diamond’s [Manhattan].
