Patrick Hyland defeats Emmanuel Lucero in Atlantic City

Featherweight Patrick Hyland (25-0) got off to a winning start

Patterson made no mention of any fighters he would like Hyland to fight next, stating only that he would sit down with Patrick and his father, Paddy Sr. -- who called out Yuriorkis Gamboa in the ring after the fight -- to assess where to go next.

Earlier in the evening, super bantamweight Paul Hyland (21-2-0, 6 KOs) won a unanimous decision over Arturo Santiago from Puerto Rico in a six-round contest.

As game as Santiago was, it was quickly apparent that Hyland was the far superior boxer. Santiago pushed the fight to Hyland, but he was an open target for the overhand right and the 27-year-old Irishman wasn’t afraid to use that punch.

Hyland’s best moments came after setting things up with his jab, but in the second half of the fight he barely threw his left hand.  Hyland confirmed afterwards that he bruised his hand hitting his opponent’s head in the middle rounds and that caused him a little discomfort.

The setback also allowed Santiago to make it more of a fight that it should have been, but at the end the judges scored it 59-55 and 58-56 twice.

“I rocked him a few times in there and I could have stepped up and finished him off but I wanted to get the six rounds because I needed the work,” said Paul after the fight, adding that he only found out who his opponent was days before the fight.

“I decided to get in and box and do my thing.  I was on the ropes, but I was making him miss. The left hand is a bit swollen. It happened in the third round, but it was a good fight and he was prepared.”

The first Hyland to take the ring on Saturday night was Eddie (16-2), who fought a four-round junior middleweight fight and dropped a unanimous decision to Franklin Gonzalez (15-9).
Hyland had a bad opening round with his opponent dominating and landing some hard shots on the Dubliner.

However, in the second and third, Eddie found more of a rhythm, seemed to push the action more and connected with come clean shots.

Both men sensed that the result was in the balance going into the last, and they fought a keenly competitive final round that the Puerto Rican might have just edged.

The judges scored the fight as follows, 39-37, 39-37 and 40-36 in favor of Gonzalez.
Paddy Hyland, Sr. was not happy with the outcome.

“The first round was a bit shaky, he (Eddie) got rocked a bit, but it doesn’t mean you win the round.  One of the judges gave that kid the four rounds. In my opinion, that is a joke,” he said.

“There is no way that kid won four rounds. I thought Eddie won the second and third rounds, and the fourth round was close. I just thought it was a bad decision.”
Eddie was also a little perplexed at how the judges interpreted the fight.

“You could give him the first round, but I thought I won the second and third.  He wasn’t catching me cleanly; he was catching my gloves,” said the 30-year-old.

“I rocked him a couple of times but I don’t know what the judges were looking at.  I was the more aggressive fighter.”

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Nster.com