Brett McGinty Hatton-esque in More Ways Than One

Not surprisingly so because ‘The Hitman’ was in his corner but there was a touch of the Ricky Hatton’s about Brett McGinty’s third pro win on Friday night.

The Donegal middle registered his first stoppage victory at the Skydome in Coventry, taking out Teodor Nikolov [5(1)-41(9)-4] in the penultimate round of the four rounder.

The shot which opened the pathway to an early finish was very Hattonesuq faint high and whip low to the body- and a shot that proved the beginning of the end for the Bulgarian.

“The first two rounds were solid enough,” McGinty [3(1)-0] said.

“There were definitely things that I could have done better, but Ricky was saying to me that I couldn’t miss; just tap him with the jab and make him think that I was going with the solid jab.

“I flicked it out and dropped the right to the body. He went down and didn’t recover. That knocked the life out of him a bit. I’m happy with the stoppage and delighted to get it.”

As well as some serious body punching ability, Hatton was also known for his ability to galvanize support – and it appears McGinty has the potential to follow suit.

Granted the 22-year-old hasn’t reached Hatton heights and would prove a success if he had 50% of that famous fan base.

However, he has shown ticket selling ability in his two fights open to fans. He brought a crowd over from Donegal to his thrid pro fight and they made their presence felt on the first fight on the card.

“When you’re fighting early in the day you think there’ll be no-one there. As soon as I walked through the curtain, the noise started and I thought: ‘I better be on my game for these people.”

“I got a wee bit flat in the second, well not having much success, and they started singing olé olé. They’ll follow me everywhere and I know that. I’m very grateful that they spend their hard-earned money coming here. Some of the supporters here for fighters, they just have to buy a ticket, but mine need flights and accommodation too. I really do appreciate that. It’s absolutely brilliant.”

McGinty only debuted last December and has three fights already, not bad in a pandemic year, but still, he wants more activity and is hoping for three more fights before the year is done.

“Tonight was the best that I felt in the warm-up. Even though I had a lot of family and friends out there, which was a bit of pressure, it was the best I felt and I was ready to go. I felt that I had a bit of spite behind my punches. I want to be 5-0 by the end of the year and have a big year next year.”