IT took five, maybe 10, seconds for the beery, testosterone charged crowd in the MGM Garden to realise they weren't watching a novelty act when Deirdre Gogarty of Drogheda, County Louth took on Christy Martin of Bluefield, West Virginia in a non title fight in the MGM Grand Garden on Saturday night.

The mixture of ferocity and serious boxing skills left the most chauvinistic ticket holders gape mouthed. The fight developed into perhaps the best boxing match of the night. Aside from the main event, Tyson and Bruno, this was the match which most thoroughly and genuinely engaged the passions of the crowd.

Gogarty, who fights out of Louisiana, had taken the fight at short notice as a profile builder and was giving away a 15 pound weight advantage to Martin. That disparity of three weight divisions was to cost Gogarty dearly.

Having planned to stay loose and keep out of range while picking Martin off with jabs, Gogarty got drawn into a slugging match early on. She shipped some astonishingly heavy blows in the first two rounds and was on the canvas once early in the second round.

Gogarty recovered, however, and boxed more skilfully in the remaining rounds. She had a big points deficit to make up from early on, but seemed unlucky not to win the fourth and sixth rounds when she boxed well and got her feet moving fluently.

Martin fought the last few rounds with her nose bleeding profusely and suffered damage to her left eye. Her rate of shots and the range from which she threw were sufficient to get her a comfortable points decision.

Martin, rated pound for pound the best woman boxer in the world at the moment, got into a boxing ring for the first time nine years ago as a dare and has developed a reputations as a knockout specialist over the past few years. She has been with the Don King stable for over two years.

"It was a big day," said Martin afterwards, "but I don't view myself as promoting women's boxing. I see women's boxing as a means of promoting Christy Martin."

As for the fight itself, Martin recognised she had been in a tough one.

"Well, Deirdre has a style that I have a difficult time with."

Gogarty was bitterly disappointed and highlighted her failure to take evasive action early on as the root cause of her problems.

"The occasion really got to me, being out there in front of so many people I idolised. I saw the shots coming, but didn't seem to be able to get out of the way. My trainer says I'll have to take some mean pills. I didn't have the aggression today."

"I feel I blew it. I wanted to do well so much, for Ireland, for all the people that helped me. I still hope I get an opportunity to fight in Ireland. It was a flash knockdown. I've been hit by men heavier and never been put down. She hit very hard, but I think I was off balance.

"I never had the aggression. I should have been slipping and throwing counter shots. I think I hurt her a few times and backed her up a few times but with the weight discrepancy I was in trouble. I thought I would have the speed and the boxing ability, but her strength told."

Gogarty is hoping to fight again within the next 45 days, and is likely to fight in Miami for the World Featherweight title on May 18 against Bonnie Cannino.

Her ambition remains to persuade the Irish Boxing Union to grant her a permit to fight on a bill in Ireland. It is a pity indeed that outmoded paternalistic attitudes have denied her an opportunity of fighting in front of a home crowd. The question of whether or not women should box is purely up to women themselves.

But can they box? Watch five seconds of tape from Gogarty v Martin. End of argument.