Absence made the heart grow fonder for returning Larry Fryers

Mick Conlan takes to the ring tomorrow night for his fourth professional fight, keeping up a busy spell since making his unprecedented debut at The Theater at Madison Square Garden on St Patrick’s Day.

However, for the other Irish boxer that featured on that memorable night in New York, this weekend will mark his return to the ring.

Monaghan welterweight Larry Fryers [3(1)-0] opened the show that night at The Mecca of Boxing, but suffered a fractured right hand a three dislocations during his dominant win over Gabriel Solario.

Now, following a frustrating six months, ‘Lethal Larry’ returns at the Rivers Casino and Resort in Schenectady, Upstate New York on Saturday night.

The time off has been tough for the New York-based Fryers, who admitted to Irish-Boxing.com that “I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t one of the hardest things I’ve experienced, being on such a high from fighting in Madison Square Garden and having fights lined up to get me moving up the rankings to having to sit and do absolutely nothing for four months straight.”

“It was hard to deal with because all I could think of was the fights I was missing out on and then self doubt started to creep in once I finally did get back training as to whether the hand could make a full recovery.”

“For the first four weeks there was still a lot of discomfort and pain in it, but the surgeon had warned me about that and that disheartened me cause it wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do but, thank God, these last six weeks it’s been feeling good and strong so all I can do is just hope it stays that way.”

It was a tough summer, but it definitely reaffirmed the Clones fighter’s love for the sport.

Fryers mused how “I took one big positive from being out and that was how much I love and want this.”

“They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and well, for me, it has.”

The 27 year old faces debutant Tyryen Hamilton over four rounds on Saturday. Fryers knows nothing about his opponent, and doesn’t see it as an opportunity to take out any lingering frustrations.

The Ulsterman outlined how “it’s just going to be like any other fight.”

“I got rid of all them frustrations on my sparring partners so, you know, come fight night it’s just going to be business as usual.

“I don’t think too much about him [Hamilton], I rather focus on me and my plan on what I’m going to do in the ring.”

“I leave what he’s like up to my manager and coaches I’ve got a job to do and I’m focused on doing it.”

Fryers is keen to make up for lost time and progress, and promised that the plan is “after this one, to fight as often and as quick as possible.”

“Thankfully I’ve got a great promotional company Liveco Promotions and my manager Bob Miller behind me and they want to push me on as quick as possible.”

“So, all going well after this fight Saturday, I have two more fights in the works before the end of the year – and after this fight I’ll be moving up to six rounds and down to the 140lbs division where I know I’ll make a real statement as I will be much stronger and sharper.”

“All going well, it’s exciting times ahead and I just can’t wait to get it going on Saturday night.”

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