Irish welterweights give their predictions for Whitehouse v Byrne

The vacant BUI Celtic title will be on the line at the home of Irish boxing as Balbriggan’s Gerard Whitehouse [7(2)-0] and Loughlinstown’s Jay Byrne [5(1)-3(1)] face-off over eight rounds.

As we always do with big all-Irish fights, Irish-Boxing.com reached out to all the other fighters at the weight for their predictions.

Paddy Gallagher
Belfast
12(8)-3(0)
BUI Rank – #5
I don’t know to be honest. Haven’t seen much. Byrne seems a real nice lad and haven’t spoke to Crank so I’ll take Byrne! He’s well experienced too and has balls, that can be the difference in a fight

Peter McDonagh
Galway
28(3)-28(2)-1
BUI Rank – #3 (at Light Middleweight)
Whitehouse wins on points in a tough battle to pick up the Celtic title.

John Joyce
Dublin
2(1)-0
BUI Rank – #9
I’ve boxed Jay as an amateur, I actually beat him. He’s so different in the way he fights now though compared to when he was an amateur. In the amateurs he used to just storm forward, now he boxes off the backfoot a bit. But Ger is a real all-round fighter – and he hits like a fucking sledgehammer, I know that first hand. It’ll be a good fight, but I can see Ger edging it.

Lewis Crocker
Belfast
4(4)-0
BUI Rank – #10
I think if you looked at both their records the more favourable one would clearly be Whitehouse being 7-0 whereas Byrne has three losses from his eight contests – but in saying that Byrnes defeats have come from solid undefeated fighters who have looked great in their career thus far. I think it’s a lot closer than what it looks on paper, but if I had to put my money on it I’d go with Whitehouse just because of his youth and the better wins. Wouldn’t mind getting the winner next year!

Dylan Moran
Waterford
2(1)-0
BUI Rank – #10 (at Light Middleweight)
To be honest I’ve never seen either of the lads box. I’ve heard they’re two good lads and best of luck to both of them.

James Cahill
Wicklow
1(0)-0
BUI Rank – #12
I suppose the two lads are fairly even. It’s a good fight and I can’t wait to see who comes out on top.

Aaron McKenna
Monaghan
0-0
BUI Rank – N/A
I know the lads but never seen them box so can’t really comment. But I would like to wish them the best of good luck. May the best man win!

Photo Credit: Sharon Flanagan