Eamonn O’Kane backs Sean McGlinchy to bounce back from McCrory loss

The world remains Sean McGlinchy’s oyster according a Derry boxer who knows a thing or two about fighting at middleweight.

Eamonn O’Kane was in McGlinchy’s corner in Belfast on October 5th and watched on as his county man suffered a first career defeat.

‘Mummy’s Bhoy’ ended a turbulent 16 month lay-off by taking a fight with former amateur rival Padraig McCrory at just 24 hours notice and ultimately fell to defeat.

The circumstances surrounding the reverse were always going to lessen any possible career blow for McGlinchy, even if victory will serve as a massive boost for McCrory, but O’Kane was keen to hammer home the point that defeat to ‘The Hammer’ is not the end of the World.

The former Commonwealth Games gold medallist, Irish middleweight champion, Prizefighter winner, and world title eliminator competitor suffered defeat to John Ryder not long after Prizefighter victory and still went on to win the aforementioned domestic strap and fight Tureano Johnson at Madison Square Garden.

O’Kane believes his fellow Derry man can bounce back in similar fashion.

“I fought John Ryder in the exact same circumstances. Short notice and nearly killed myself making the weight. I came back to fight for a world title eliminator. He took a contender fight and hats off to him,” O’Kane told the Derry Journal.

“The world’s his oyster. Sean’s got the ability there’s no doubt. Fair play to Sean for taking it because it takes a lot of bottle to do that.”

O’Kane has no arguments with the end result, noting the fourth round down knockdown was always going to be enough to win emerging talent McCrory victory – but he did take exception with the scoring.

‘King Kane’ did not agree with the 40-35 tally and retired puncher claims it was ‘ridiculous’ McGlinchy wasn’t given a round.

Indeed, the former middleweight fighter felt the Creggan scrapper, who he formerly sparred with, was on course to claim a draw but for the last round knockdown.

“It’s disappointing the judges didn’t give him a round because that was ridiculous. Definitely some of those rounds had to be at least a draw if not shaded by Sean.”

“There’s no way the judges should’ve given it a landslide decision. It was a close enough fight. Some exchanges Sean was winning by finishing with the shot and some Padraig McCrory was winning, so it was nearly a case of who finished the round the best.”

“I would say, other than Sean getting dropped, it should’ve been a draw.”