Pádraig McCrory eyes fight with Irish rival following frustrating Ulster Hall night

Pádraig McCrory [7(3)-0] was down beat when talking about his performance but remained upbeat about the year ahead after his first fight of 2019 on Friday night.

‘The Hammer’ outpointed the tricky Santos Medrano on an Ulster Hall undercard that never really caught fire. 

Part of the well-supported Belfast super middle felt he let his vocal following down, but he does remain positive and is confident he can make it up to them in bigger fights this year.

The Ray Ginley-trained fighter believes he will have a role to play in MTK’s 2019 Belfast plans and hopes to win the BUI Celtic title before the year is done.

“I feel I am going to go on to bigger and better things. The Ulster Hall was loud tonight and that was a great experience. You always want to put on a big show for the crowd and sometimes you feel like you let them down. There are big nights coming to Belfast and I’ll be there and I’ll use this learning fight to put on a better show,” McCrory said post his shut out points win.

“At the end of the year I want at least a BUI Celtic title. I want to stay unbeaten and at least have that title,” he added before responding to questions with regard to who he would like to fight, name-checking one potential opponent in particulae.

“There are people all over Wales, Scotland and Ireland. You have [Craig] McCarthy from down south. There are loads of options, listen I am willing to fight anyone.”

McCarthy [6(1)-0] also won at the weekend and Assassin Promoions have stated their intention of an in-house BUI Celtic title between the Waterford fighter and Cork stablemate Vladimir Belujsky [7(6)-2(0)-1].

St James’s McCrory, though, is hopeful that he can get in the mix

The Irish-Boxing.com 2018 Knockout of the Year winner increased his winning record on the IFL TV broadcast show, but had mixed feelings after having his hand raised.

McCrory felt he should have stopped the undersized Nicaraguan journeyman, but was happy to learn the kind of lessons survival specialists can teach and content to get six rounds in.

“It was alright. He was really tricky, but it was good to get the six rounds under the belt.

“I am a bit disappointed. I was winging shots. I was caught in the middle of I should have got him out of there because he is so small, but it thinking its good to get the rounds.”

“See when they’re inside and they want to get away with you, when they are tricky like that it’s hard to take a step back and land that big shot. It looks crap, but it is what it is. 

“He was so hard to hit because he was so low, but it’s all a learning curve.”

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