British camp not afraid of Cacace or Belfast – coach quashes ‘fake’ Bowen injury talk

Neither Belfast or Anthony Cacace hold any fear for Sam Bowen claims his coach and mentor Carl Greaves.

The British super featherweight champion was ordered by the British Boxing Board of Control to defend his title against ‘The Apache’ – and was set to made the mandatory defence on the massive Mick Conlan Féile show on August 3rd.

It looked the perfect opportunity for the 30-year-old Belfast fighter to finally register a form of breakthrough win, but just as excitement was starting to build Cacace suffered more boxing misfortune.

‘The Bullet’ pulled out of the clash through injury and the former Irish champion was off the card as a result.

Post the news breaking a number of Irish fans – and Cacace followers in particular – began to suggest Bowen never planned on putting his title on the line on a Belfast stadium card.

There were those suggesting that once the mandated fight was moved from the Dubious – Gorman card to the Féile a Bowen ‘injury’ was inevitable.

Greaves is adamant that isn’t the case. The coach points out neither Cacace or Belfast were a worry.

For starters, Greaves believes his charge is all wrong for the former British title challenger and would back Bowen win regardless as to where the fight was stages.

He also points out that, although the fight was to take part in Cacace’s hometown, Bowen was effectively they home fighter considering his links to Frank Warren.

“Going to Belfast wasn’t a problem. I accepted it straight away,” Greaves told Irish-boxing.com.

“Cacace isn’t a Warren fighter, an MTK fighter, or a Top Rank fighter. Sam was the house fighter and champion. It would have been neutral judges and ref. The only thing against us is it’s where Cacace is from,” he adds before stressing he is confident Bowen would beat the fighter, who ended up calling out Michael Conlan post the postponing of the domestic title fight.

“We’ve a lot of respect for Anto. He’s a very good fighter, but I just think Sam is all wrong for him.”

“People have looked at Sam’s last performance and think they’ve found weaknesses, but hand on heart that was a 70% Bowen. He should not have been in the ring that night. but we knew he still had enough in him to beat McCrory.”

Greaves revealed Ibstock man was scheduled to start camp last week, but was in too much pain to train properly, so they elected to address the issue.

“He’s had the injection [on Monday] so hopefully it’s been a success and he can get back training in the next couple of weeks. He’s been in pain for a while. He was ticking over in his gym and was meant to start camp last week when I got back from Ibiza, but he was in too much pain.”

Cacace remains mandatory and will still get the chance to challenge for the title – and Greaves thinks that it could be rescheduled for as early as mid September.

“I’m hoping he can be back training before the end of the month, so middle of September I’m hoping it can happen.”