By Thomas Gerbasi

Madison Square Garden, New York City - Belfast’s Eamonn O’Kane shouldn't have been expected to go 12 rounds with Tureano Johnson in their IBF middleweight title elimination bout after hitting the deck twice in the first round, but he did and did so with a memorable and gutsy performance. Unfortunately, Nassau's Johnson was still too much for him, as he won a wide unanimous decision.

Scores were 118-108, 117-109, 119-107 for Johnson, not 19-1 with 13 KOs; O'’Kane falls to 17-2-1 with five stops.

O'’Kane had a rough go in the opening three minutes, as he got hit with nearly everything Johnson threw, resulting in two trips to the canvas – the first with 1:20 left in the round courtesy of a right hand, and the next with under 40 seconds left thanks to an accumulation of blows. O'’Kane didn't seem particularly hurt by any one shot, but he wasn't able to avoid any incoming fire either.

In the second, O’'Kane stayed upright and could have conceivably won the round, as Johnson willingly stood chest to chest with the Belfast native and let him fire away with only sporadic returns from the Bahamian contender. There was more of the same in the third, with Johnson finally beginning to let his hands go again in the fourth stanza.

O'’Kane had two more solid rounds in the fifth and sixth, making you wonder why Johnson was fighting the Irishman's fight and not just stepping back and using his superior speed and punching accuracy. But he did just that to begin the seventh round, and Johnson began tagging O’'Kane once more, only to get involved in trench warfare once again in the eighth, which played right into O’'Kane’'s hands.

Johnson'’s potshotting kept him a step ahead of the O'’Kane charge in round nine, and he had one of his best rounds in a while in the tenth, as he repeatedly tagged his Irish foe, who finally looked to be showing the slightest bit of fatigue before a late charge.

Back in control, Johnson’'s sharpshooting had O’'Kane throwing at air for much of the final two rounds, but the Irishman could hold his head high after going 12 rounds following a horrific start.