On a historic day for Irish sport, Bernard Dunne realised his world title dream in stunning fashion, the Dubliner claiming the WBA super-bantamweight belt with a brutal 11th-round stoppage of Ricardo Cordoba before a raucous crowd at The O2 on Saturday night.

In arguably the finest fight ever staged on The Emerald Isle, Dunne finally secured victory after dropping his Panamanian rival - for the third time in the round, and the fourth overall – with just one second to go in the penultimate stanza.

It was a quite remarkable turnaround given that Dunne had been on the verge of being stopped himself after twice being felled in the fifth, only to be saved by the bell.

Dunne fought majestically thereafter, though, and it had become obvious by the tenth that Cordoba had nothing left the give.

Indeed, when the 24-year-old southpaw was dropped for the first time in the 11th it appeared to be more out of exhaustion than anything else, the South American stumbling backwards and onto his backside after a seemingly innocuous exchange whilst backed up on the ropes.

However, it quickly transpired that Cordoba was out on his feet, Dunne flooring him again moments later, and this time with cracking left hook.

Read the rest of Mark Doyle report from Irish-Boxing.com here...