Belfast Bound – James McGivern Wants to Headline at Home
James McGivern wants to become a Belfast headliner.
‘The Natural’ believes he has served his apprenticeship and is ready for serious work.
He hopes to eventually work from home with plans to headline in one of the world’s boxing-steeped cities – and the Jason Quigley managed BUI Celtic lightweight champion feels he has the promotional backing to make that happen.
“I need to be fighting regularly and with Queensberry I will get that – hopefully three or four fights before next October,” he tells David Mohan of Belfast Media.
“If you want to live the life of a professional fighter, at this stage you need to fight regularly until you are fighting for the likes of a European title.
“A trades apprenticeship is usually three years, so I’ve done four as a pro boxer and I am finally coming out the other side of it.
“Hopefully after two or three fights, there can be another show in Belfast and I can headline. I’d love the Ulster Hall as being a St George’s man, it’s a stone’s throw from where I’m from. An Inter-Continental or Commonwealth title in there would be great, but we’ll see what happens.”
McGivern secured himself a contract with Frank Warren when he produced a Knockout of the Year contender in Belfast earlier in the year.
The first-round stoppage of Rashid Omar caught the eye of boxing followers around the world and raised eyebrows in Irish boxing circles as the former amateur standout was more known for panache than power.
“Hopefully as quick as the last time or even quicker would be better,” he adds.
“Queensberry have me pinned as a knockout artist after the last one, but they clearly hadn’t watch the first couple of fights I had! Who knows, maybe I am a knockout artist now – it’s only taken me four years to work it out.”
McGivern had agreed to Levi Smith at the Echo Arena on Saturday and was keen to break three duck eggs in a row, only for the Brit to pull out.
So instead he faces Facundo Arce iin his first fight under the Queensberry banner. The Argenitne’s record doesn’t make for scary reading at first glance but he threatened to upset Archie Sharp recently, dropping the fighter Irish fans will remember for beating Declan Geraghty, twice in the first round of their fight.
“I was a bit annoyed but it doesn’t matter who it is I fight on this show, just so long as I fight on it and get the experience of the whole fight week of a world title fight in Liverpool.
“This Argentinian has 17 wins, 16 losses and two draws, so it doesn’t look as good on paper but is still a really hard test. It’s also great to be on a big world title fight card and a big Queensberry fight week with all of the workouts, press conferences and so on.
“I need the experience of two or three of those under my belt before I can start asking to headline back in Belfast.
“I’m happy to do all the media stuff, but it’s not something I love either so I don’t really think about all of that. “In my mind I’m just fighting and I don’t worry about who it’s against, what it’s for or how big the whole thing is, so it’s just the same as any other fight.”
