Brett McGinty raises the roof with his latest pro win

Backed by a boisterous home support, Brett McGinty defeated Alessandro Ruggiero on points at the National Stadium on Saturday night.

Tough Italian Ruggiero helped make a firecracker of the six-rounder, but McGinty was given a 59-55 decision on his Irish debut as a professional.

The path down the South Circular Road was well trodden by McGinty as an amateur when he won eight Irish titles.

Now trained by boxing legend Ricky Hatton, the 24-year-old St Johnston man is making inroads in the paid ranks, Saturday's win taking him to 6-0.

The bout began how it would pan out, McGinty and Ruggiero almost literally toe-to-toe.

Ruggiero came to fight and he found McGinty a willing participant. Ruggiero might have got the nod in the first, but McGinty was the controller for much of the rest of the fight.

The 36-year-old Ruggiero was now perhaps a little worn out by his own first-round exertions and McGinty buzzed him with a big right in the third. The tattooed body of Ruggiero became a target for some vicious shots, but the game visitor took it all.

McGinty finished the fourth well, but a hurt hand created some sloppiness in the fight, enabling Ruggiero to get a glimpse.

Elite Sports Promotions staged the Republic of Ireland's first pro show in three years and McGinty's support, numbering around 300, will have perked the ears and the tills of any watching promoters.

His trunks were adorned with the crests of Oak leaf Boxing Club and Kildrum Tigers FC, the clubs at which he cut his teeth. In the stands of the National Stadium, Maiden City and 'Wee Toon' combined to give a belting fight the raucous backdrop it demanded.

McGinty and Ruggiero enbraded before the sixth, where McGinty, just one-handed now, resumed his control of things and bagged his latest win.

A former Commonwealth Youth Games silver medallist and European Schoolboys bronze medallist, McGinty flipped over to the paid ranks in 2019, but endured a long wait, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, for his debut.

It is momentum now he'll seek.