Ray Close Eammon Loughran and Sam Storey. In his seventh bout he beat Rocky McGran to win the vacant Irish Super Middleweight title. He successfully defended the title against Terry Magee, the older brother of Eamonn and Noel, in Dublin in 1991. In 1993, he defeated Vincenzo Nardiello to win the EBU European Super Middleweight title in Italy. Later the same year Close faced Chris Eubank for the WBO Super Middleweight title. In what would be the first of his two fights against Eubank, the match was declared a draw. After an October win against Ray Domenge, Close again faced Eubank in
Chris Eubank Jr. (12-3, 4 KOs) was his opponent. Eubank dropped Horváth four times, stopping him in round 6. This was Eubank's eighth straight stoppage win. On the Saunders vs. Blandamura undercard on 26 July at the Phones 4u Arena in Manchester, Eubank stopped Croatian journeyman Ivan Jukic (19-2, 12 KOs) after just 2 minutes and 40 seconds of the opening round. On 15 September 2014, Frank Warren announced that Eubank would challenge fellow unbeaten British rival Billy Joe Saunders for his British, Commonwealth and European titles on the undercard of Tyson Fury vs. Dereck Chisora II on 9 November at the ExCeL