Carl McDonald eyes Regan Buckley rematch following comeback win

Carl McDonald is back and looking better than ever.

So much so, the Jobstown super bantamweight wouldn’t mind another shot at top prospect Regan Buckley.

McDonald was decisively defeated by the impressive Buckley over six rounds back in September but has rebuilt since.

Revealing afterwards that he had personal problems in the build-up to this fight, McDonald took time off and made his comeback on Saturday night at Good Counsel GAA club in Drimnagh on the Celtic Clash 5 undercard.

‘The Cobra’ dropped Trayan Slavev twice in the opener – the first knockdowns of his pro career – and dominated the entirety of the four-rounder as the Bulgarian clung on for dear life.

The Tallaght boxer, a former Intermediate champion, described afterward how Slavev “came to fight so I tried to push and knock him out. I crowded myself and he was spoiling, I frustrated myself, I should have used my experience and training. Eddie [Hyland, coach] was telling me to step back, don’t crowd my work, and get my shots in, but I just got excited.

“My first fight back, I wanted to make a statement and I tried to hard.”

“Honestly though, I’m happy with the performance, I put him down twice and I was jabbing the head off him, hitting him at will, landing how I wanted and when I wanted.”

“I had a couple of combinations on the ropes and I thought the ref could have stepped in, if I had him there for another three or four seconds I would have got him out of there.”

Slavev certainly knew how to bend the rules, having a point docked for holding and multiple times hitting McDonald after the bell or on the break.

“It’s a good thing he doesn’t punch,” laughed McDonald who now moves to 3(0)-1(0).

“They were the best shots he hit me with!”

“He was a small bit dirty. I don’t mind, I like being hit, I probably shouldn’t, but I do enjoy it.”

McDonald was in fine form following his third pro win.

A contrast to his last fight, the 28-year-old noted how “I feel like a new man, honestly.”

“Nobody knows, the training camp for the last one, it started off good but I just got bad news after bad news right up to the week of the fight.”

“I was asked by a couple of people not to fight, but it’s not me. Fighters fight.”

“All credit to the opponent, he turned up on the night and did what he had to do and he got the ‘W'”

“It just made me come back, bigger and stronger.”

Indeed McDonald would fight Buckley [2(0)-0] again, and when this proposition was put to him he stated that “I wouldn’t mind!”

“I want to fight Irish lads. I want to keep busy now”

“I won’t be fighting below super bantamweight any more though.”

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)