Illies’ comeback kid Paddy Doherty takes Ulster Senior title

Comeback kid Paddy Doherty won the Ulster Senior heavyweight title on Friday night.

The Illies Golden Gloves puncher ended a four-and-a-half-year exile from the ring last week as the Ulster Senior and Senior Novice Championships took centre stage.

Doherty defeated Michael Quinn from Gleann ABC in Belfast on a unanimous decision in Friday’s final.

Doherty received a bye into the final, held at the Corpus Christi Boxing Club in west Belfast.

The Illies man was the sole Donegal winner on finals night.

Owing to Covid-19 restrictions still in place, the finals were held behind closed doors.

There was no joy for Doherty’s Illies club mates Charlie Duffy and Oran Shields in their finals.

Duffy was beaten by John Boyd of Gleann in the light-middleweight final while Shields was stopped in the third round of the light-heavyweight decider by Rory Kinney (Scorpion).

In the 86kgs Novice B final, Harry Good of Letterkenny ABC lost to Darren McNally from Cookstown, the Donegal man having had a split decision win over TJ Doherty (Gleann) in the semi-finals.

Carrigart ABC’s Jaquis Roland lost to Enniskillen man Dylan Bogue in the 67kgs novice final while Twin Towns’ Johnathon Lodder was beaten by Gary Robinson (Midland) in the Novice A 86kgs final.

Raphoe ABC’s Francie McGinley defeated Dungloe’s Odhran Ketterick in an all-Donegal quarter-final in the Novice A 75kgs class before he lost out to Holy Family’s Paul Reid in a semi-final.

Raphoe’s Cathal McLaughlin stopped Waterside’s Gareth Glackin in a senior middleweight quarter-final, but Lex Weston (Ardoyne) had too much for McLaughlin in the semi-final.

On his way to meeting Duffy at light-middle, John Boyd got the better of Orin McDermott from Raphoe ABC in a semi-final.