Senior gardai fear that three ongoing gangland feuds have the potential to explode because many of the leading players will be attending the Dunne title defence.

Noel Roche (27) was shot dead on the Clontarf Road in December 2005 after rival gangsters spotted him at a Phil Collins concert and ambushed him while he was driving home.

It is feared that the Dunne fight has the potential for trouble and gardai are taking no chances and have deployed detectives from the Dublin North Central division to patrol the venue in plain clothes.

More than two dozen wellknown criminals were identified by gardai at the Bernard Dunne fight last November and, because of the number of city feuds, the occasion has the potential for clashes.

Two rival gangs from Crumlin and Drimnagh are involved in an ongoing feud that has claimed 10 lives, while two groups from Finglas are in dispute with each other, as are gangs from Swords and the north inner city.

One senior source said: "Criminal figures seem to be attracted to big boxing matches and large numbers of the same gang often have big nights out at title fights to let off steam. The problem we have is that there will be major players from rival gangs under the one roof and we are not just dealing with one feud . . . there are several on the go at the moment.

"If they were to see each other, then things could spiral out of control and result in violence. There will probably be drink and drugs involved as well which will make it more volatile.

"We will have an undercover armed presence there in case anything kicks off.

"It pays to be safe at an event like this. There was a gang hit after the Phil Collins concert in the Point and if criminals are attracted to Phil Collins you can only imagine how many go to boxing matches."

Dubliner Bernard Dunne faces Yersin Jailauov of Kazakhstan tonight and a capacity crowd of 6,000 is expected.