It was a great night of boxing at the 3Arena headlined by Callum Walsh, who was victorious in his main event bout against Przemyslaw Runowski.
The Corkonian beat the Pole via knock-out in the second round to retain his WBC Continental Americas Title in front of 4,649 in Dublin.
The event which was broadcasted on UFC Fight Pass and TNT Sports was organised with the help of UFC President Dana White who was also ringside for the event.
It was a night of high drama and it didn't get more dramatic than the bout between Kerry's Kevin Cronin and Olympian Emmet Brennan for the BUI Celtic Super Middleweight title.
Many had Brennan, who represented Ireland in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, as the heavy favourite coming into the fight but Cronin surprised at lot of people as the fight began, being able to land significant strikes and dominate Brennan.
It went down to the wire and after the 8 rounds it went down to a split decision in favour of Brennan to the shock and dismay of many, including Dana White.
In a press conference after the event White spoke about how he felt Cronin was the rightful winner and suggested alternative ways to avoid controversial decisions, something many have been trying to combat for decades.
It was really bad, you could never watch a fight in your life and you know who won the fight tonight. It was that bad.
Obviously, it is something we don’t control. I think what needs to happen, it is never perfect and it happens in my sport too but tonight was so bad.
It is tough to justify. It is one of the things I will work on and try to fix. Maybe next time we come we bring some international judges too.
He was a 4/1 dog and he came out and won that fight tonight. Clearly won the fight and he lost. That is devastating to the kid’s career. It is brutal.
Cronin took to Instagram after the fight with a brutally honest post where he sights the time and effort he put into preparing for this fight and how gutted he was to miss out on the win via split decision.
View this post on Instagram
Emmet Brennan commented on the post commending Cronin and saying it was a "pleasure to share the ring" with him.
Dana White Calls For Callum Walsh Fight To Happen In Cork
On a more positive note, during the same press conference the UFC boss spoke about the success of the event in Dublin and may have planted seeds for their next Irish location.
I tell people all the time in the States and other parts of the world who have never been here, you got to do it.
Next time we come back we got to do Cork and really bring him home.
It would be immense if Callum Walsh could fight in front of a hometown crowd in Cork. The Corkonians are always faithful to their own so one can only imagine the hype there'll be in the city if Walsh brought a fight to Cork.
