February 6th Dublin Fights Cancelled – 1 Dead in Shooting at Weigh-ins

Dublin Fights Cancelled – The “Clash of the Clans” boxing event being promoted at the National Stadium in Dublin, Ireland has been cancelled due to a violent incident at the Friday weigh-ins.

Reports from the scene state that three gunmen wearing security uniforms entered the Regency Hotel where the weigh-ins for Saturday’s fights were underway.

The gunmen are said to have fired “a lot of shots” and three injured people were taken to local hospitals.  One victim is said to have died, while two others are being treated.  The weigh-ins were being attended by roughly 300 people.

Though reports are still sketchy, terrorism has almost all but been ruled out.  Instead, the local media is referring to the incident as a “gangland” shooting.  The BBC report claims that “Mel Cristle, the president of the Boxing Union of Ireland, said the shooting was not indiscriminate and the boxers were being targeted”.   Another report, by the Irish Times states that “One line of inquiry being examined by gardaí is whether the shooting is linked to a growing feud between a large criminal gang in Dublin and an Irish-led crime cartel based in the south of Spain.

Boxer Jamie Kavanagh, who was one of the fighters in the main event, took to Twitter to state he was ok after the incident.

This is not the first time that violence has reared its ugly head around the MGM Gym in Ireland.  In 2014, Jamie Kavanagh’s father Gerard Kavanagh, a known gang enforcer, was shot and killed in a bar in Dublin, and the shooting of former boxer Jamie Moore was tied to the gang wars as well.

The “Irish Athletic Boxing Association”, who owns the National Stadium boxing-only venue where this weekend’s fights were to take place will likely think twice before ‘renting out’ the Stadium for Professional boxing.

Box Nation, the group responsible for broadcasting the event, have announced that the show has been cancelled due to the circumstances.

Following today’s incident at the Dublin weigh in, tomorrow’s show from the National Stadium has been cancelled.

— BoxNation (@boxnationtv) February 5, 2016

Check out the latest news and videos at The Boxing Channel