Jay Byrne stopped in big Sky Sports fight

Jay Byrne fell to a first ever knockout defeat on the big card in Liverpool tonight.

The Dubliner was stopped in the fourth round at the Echo Arena, live on Sky Sports, by Rio Olympian Anthony Fowler.

A scheduled six-round light middleweight contest, Byrne was dropped twice just past the half-way mark with punishing bodyshots and turned his back, unable to continue.

The Dubliner had gone the distance with top prospects Felix Cash and Josh Kelly earlier in the year, however the power of ‘The Machine’ Fowler proved to be too much.

Fowler began sharply, landing well with his piston-like jab. Byrne circled, and looked to get physical once inside. The home fighter landed with a couple of uppercuts in the final minute but Byrne seemed relatively untroubled.

The second was a scrappy round, before Fowler began to dominate as it drew to a close.

New trainer Declan Geraghty Sr had some strong words for Byrne in the corner and the Loughlinstown man came out firing in the third, landing on Fowler in what was the closest round of the fight – however the Englishman again finished strong as Byrne’s face began to mark up.

The end came in the fourth round as Fowler turned his attention to the body, hurting Byrne and eventually putting him down with an accumulation of shots. The Irish fighter rose, but was sent straight back down, left sprawled out. Byrne rose and beat the count, but turned his back into the corner, unable to continue and the bout was waved off.

The win sees Fowler improve his perfect professional record to 3(3)-0, while Byrne drops to 5(1)-3(1) following his first stoppage defeat.

The result also means that Byrne will be handed a mandatory stoppage suspension from the BBBoC and will miss out on his scheduled appearance in the home corner in Belfast in three weeks time on the Ryan Burnett -Zhanat Zhakiyanov undercard.