THE eagerly anticipated Rumble In The Hills boxing event took place on Saturday night and certainly lived up to its billing. 

A crowd in the region of 1,200 people arrived at the Aura Leisure Centre in Letterkenny to witness some of Ireland’s biggest boxing prospects. 

The show was promoted by local middleweight title challenger Jason Quigley of Sheer Sports Management and was broadcasted to a worldwide audience via Thriller TV. 

The show saw nine professional bouts take place and was headlined by Callum Bradley who is touted as one of Ireland’s hottest prospects. 

The Omagh native took to the ring in the main event to face Poland’s Piotr Gudel and managed to stretch his unbeaten record to 8-0. 

‘Cool’ Callum Bradley went on a relentless pursuit of the Polish boxer in the opening rounds, knocking him down on several occasions. 

He got his just rewards in round four, with referee Padraig O’Reachtagain calling an end to the fight to seal Bradley’s first stoppage win. 

In the co-main event, Fermanagh’s Rhys Owens took to the ring for his professional debut where he met Stefan Nicolae from Belgium. 

It was a proud night for the Enniskillen man, becoming the first Fermanagh native to fight professionally in over 50 years, and he made it a memorable one also. 

Owens, who is co-managed by Jason Quigley and Jamie Conlan, tested the Romanian boxer throughout the opening two rounds before seeing the fight stopped in the third much to the delight of the large Erneside crowd in attendance. 

Danny Duffy continued his professional boxing career on Saturday night, stepping into the ring to face Liverpool’s Ricky Starkey, an experienced boxer who came here posting a record of 22-33-2. 

Duffy, who is a part of the Raphoe Boxing Club, made the decision to turn to the professional game just less than 12 months ago and had two wins under his belt entering the fight. 

The Strabane man defeated Jake Pollard on his debut in Waterford last December before overcoming Steven Maguire at the Devenish Complex in Belfast back in June. 

In what was one of the fights of the night, the Merseyside man provided a stern test for the 24-year-old. 

However, Duffy handled the occasion well and with the help of a knockdown in round four, he was declared a 40-35 winner on the judges scorecards to extend his professional record to 3-0. 

Eoghan Lavin produced a fine display to put his opponent Kristaps Zulgis and seal victory courtesy of a first round stoppage at the Aura Leisure Centre. 

The Swinford native is trained by Manchester man Anthony Crolla, a former WBA Lightweight, WBO Inter-Continental Lightweight and British Lightweight title holder. 

The 22-year-old boxer from Mayo needed only 96 seconds in the ring to secure the win, landing a decisive right hand to his Latvian opponent’s temple to see the fight called to an end to move Lavin’s record to 7-0. 

It was a similar scenario in the bout that preceded it as Jason Myers required just two minutes of ring time to seal the win against Kevin Kitchener from Germany. 

Myers, who hails from Galway, was back at the same arena that he made his professional debut back in two years ago. 

He overcame the challenge of Martin Miley on that occasion and has since extended his unbeaten record with two further wins in the ring. 

The two boxers both went at it in the early stages of Saturday’s fight, trading blows with one another. 

However, Jason ‘Hand of Stone’ Myers connected with a big right hand in the final third of the opening round to see a stoppage called, extending his unbeaten record as a professional to 4-0.

Before this fight, Kian Hedderman also required little time to get the win over Poland’s Mateusz Piorkowski. 

Limerick native Hedderman had only made his professional boxing debut last month when he was part of the undercard for Michael Conlan vs Jake Bateson undercard at the Three Arena. 

The Our Lady of Lourdes boxing club member got the better of Akexandu Crasnitchii on that occasion and he continued his positive start to professional life on Saturday night. 

The Limerick man had his Polish opponent down twice in the opening round but referee Padraig O’Reachtagain allowed the fight to continue. 

Although he shortly had him on the canvas for a third time which saw the fight ended just shy of two minutes into round one to move Hedderman to 2-0 in his career. 

Before that in the ring was Tiernan Bradley who was up against Brice Bula Galo, a boxer out of Belgium. 

Bradley, who is the brother of main event winner Callum Bradley, came into this fight posting a professional record of 10-0-1 with the draw coming back in April where he faced Ben Croker when the IBF European title was up for grabs. 

In what was a fierce fight between the two competitors, the Omagh man troubled the Belgian who is nicknamed ‘The Gun’ and pressed on in round three of the bout to force a stoppage after 2.33 and see the Bradley brothers take home a brace of wins in Letterkenny. 

Saturday’s win saw the Tyrone native move his professional record to 11-0-1 and will be eager to continue his good form in the ring. 

In the second professional fight of the night, Jim Donovan produced an impressive display to see off his Polish opponent Bartlomiej Wlodarczyk. 

The Limerick man had only made his professional debut back in September when he defeated Lukasz Barabasz at Windsor Park in Belfast. 

The 21-year-old landed a big right hand to Wlodarczyk to see him knocked to the canvas for the second time and referee Paul McCollough signalled the end of the fight just short of two minutes into round one to move Donovan to 2-0 in his professional career. 

The professional card began with a bout between two female boxers, Tiana Schroeder and Judit Hachbold. 

Schroeder, a Canadian native who is now based in Waterford, controlled proceedings in the ring on Saturday night and put her Hungarian opponent to the canvas in round number six but couldn’t force a stoppage. 

She eventually sealed victory on the judges scorecard, with them deeming her a 60-53 winner to extend her unbeaten record to 5-0. 

The evening’s entertainment commenced with a trio of exhibition fights between some talented amateur boxers. 

Ryley Doherty from the Raphoe Boxing Club faced Cormac Dillon from Eglinton, Aodhan Byrne took to the ring with Jamie Horner while Twin Towns Boxing Club’s Caoimhinn Connolly met Conan McSorley in three entertaining encounters.