Crank Whitehouse – “I’ll outbox him when I want and outfight him when I want”

Gerard Whitehouse [4(1)-0] returns to the ring after a year out on Saturday night, and not only does he return to the squared circle, ‘Crank’ is also back at the scene of some of his greatest amateur triumphs – the National Stadium.

The Balbriggan light welter won four Irish underage titles, as well as a European Schoolboys bronze, before turning pro where he has strung together four wins on small hall shows.

However, venue isn’t important for the 21 year old, who is just happy to be back fighting. Whitehouse told Irish-Boxing.com that “it’s a nice card to be on with good fighters but I’m happy fighting anywhere once I’m in the ring. All that matters on the day is you and the fella you’re fighting, so I’m just focusing on my job and what I have to do, nothing else.”

“I’ve been out for a while, but I’ve always been in the gym working, learning, and improving.”

While there is little sentimentality for Whitehouse, he has also returned to his old stomping ground to train for this fight and described how I’ve moved my camp back to my old amateur club [Bracken BC] for this fight and camp has gone really well so I think I’ll perform well on the night.”

Fights seem to be like buses for the Fingal youngster with a second date pencilled in for Belfast on November 26th, but Whitehouse stressed that “I’m fully focused on Saturday night, the fight in Belfast does not even enter my mind. I’ve a job to do Saturday night before I can move on.”

First up for the Dubliner is Spaniard Sergio Abad [2(1)-5(1)] and Whitehouse is predicting a comprehensive win, outlining how “we had a good guy lined up to fight with three fights and three KOs, undefeated, but he pulled out two weeks ago due to whatever reason… maybe a fear of losing the 0 on his record.”

“The guys from Red Corner have got a Spanish fella to step in. I don’t really look at my opponents, I leave that up to my team.”

“I think I’m just going to be too good for this guy, I’ll outbox him when I want and outfight him when I want.”