Appreciate the Hard Times – Liam Gaynor Fueled by Difficult Period

Liam Gaynor [6-1] believes he showed his true fighting spirit during the time he wasn’t allowed to throw a punch in anger.

The future looked dark for a lot of fighters once COVID took full effect and going into lockdowns and restricted life on the back of a first career defeat was anything but ideal.

However, the Bolton based Tallaght fighter tried to turn the reverse suffered at the gloves of Ed Harrison into a positive particularly during the enforced period of inactivity.

Gaynor used the hurt as training fuel and revealed it kept him motivated at a time and after an event that he feels would have challenged many fighter’s desire to continue.

“A lot of boxers would of hung up the gloves with coming off a loss before a world pandemic but it drove me to be better,” he told Irish-boxing.com.

Gaynor was speaking after happier times and a successful return to the ring.

The 23-year-old returned to winning ways and ended over a year absence from the ring with victory over Simas Volosinas at the Bolton Whites hotel just over a week ago.

“It was definitely nice to put the loss behind me but at the same time I needed it to give me that extra drive to improve on things and to keep myself focussed throughout lockdown,” he adds before discussing the time out further.

“It was an amazing experience to be back boxing with no regulations in place or for it to be in a car park like some shows have been. It’s been hard to watch boxing on the tv and getting itchy feet for the last 19 month so getting back in there was a good feeling.”

Reflecting on his return win and performance he continued: “I can’t really fault my performance. I was scheduled to do a 6 rounder but after a last minute change of opponent, I was down to do a 4 rounder instead.

“I was in against a very tough experienced fighter who’s been in with all the best around such as Kid Galahad and Jono Carroll. I caught him with some lovely shots and could have stopped him at some point if I had caught him a few more clean. A stoppage would of been nice but we’re onto bigger and better things now.”

Gaynor has always come across as an ambitious fighter and has held domestic title ambitions from early on. The stop-start nature of his career meant he has come in and out of the domestic picture.

Now he is back again he wants to work his way to an early 2022 title shot.

“I’ve been inactive for 19 months now so I need to catch up on my career so a nice run of fights would be fantastic to achieve over the next few months.

“Over the next few months I’ve got one fight scheduled for before Christmas but hopefully get a call up for another show somewhere along the line even a nice step up domestically set myself up for a title shot in the new year.”