Cathal Crowley accuses Kevin Cronin of ‘Ducking’ title fight
Cathal Crowley is looking at it in the simplest terms possible – if he doesn’t see Kevin Cronin standing across the ring from him in his next fight it means the Kerry man is avoiding a fight.
Crowley put a social media post suggesting ‘The Kingdown Warrior’ was ‘ducking’ him yesterday and doubled down on the claim when speaking to Irish-boxing.com today.
Speaking after he’d gone eight round against Edgar Kemsky in Galway on St Patrick’s weekend the Cork super middle said he had accepted an offer to fight his Munster rival for the Irish title in Kerry in the summer.
Cronin, who also fought that weekend, but in Boston, revealed he had an offer, explaining he’d been approached by a third party re the fight.
However, the former BUI Celtic and Irish title challenger at light heavyweight was insistent he never accepted the offer, stating he’d review it after Boston.
The Michael Conlan-managed 168lber has now seemingly discarded the Elite Sports Promotion offer in favour of going his own route.
Cronin is all set on topping a Conlan Boxing-promoted, DAZN broadcast card in his home county and plans are underway to make that happen.
An opponent for that proposed homecoming won’t be fully explored until a date and venue is finalized.
However, Crowley isn’t one for the small print or the background dealings of the sport. In his mind he’s agreed to a fight he believes makes sense, so if the fight isn’t made he can only draw one conclusion.
“This is boxing nothing is ever straightforward, I’ve learned that already from my short time as a pro. But this part is simple for me until I see him in the ring I’m gonna say he doesn’t want it,” Crowley told Irish-boxing.com.
“I’ve nothing to do with the negotiations and all that stuff,” he adds.
“I leave that to Pascal, from my point of view the fight was offered, I accepted and I just needed to win a eight round fight.”
Crowley confirmed Barry Walsh of Elite, who don’t promote Cronin, proposed the fight to him and he accepted.
“I was asked if would I fight Kevin six weeks before the fight on Paddy’s Day. Straight away I said ‘yes, 100% I’ll fight him’.
“I was told I just needed to get a eight-round fight done to qualify me for the Irish title. I was also told if he won in Boston the fight was going ahead.”
If the fight was to happen it can’t be for the Irish title as Tommy Hyde was confirmed as next in line for the green strap by the BUI – but it would make a solid BUI Celtic title fight and an exciting DAZN bill topper.
Crowley is keen regardless.
“Let’s get it on,” his message to a fighter who won Fight of the Year for one of his two classics with Jamie Morrissey
Speaking previously on the Crowley situation, Cronin said : “It was said to us prior to my fight [in Boston]. It was another promoter asking if I’d be interested in fighting Cathal Crowley for the Irish. We just said we will get USA out of the way and see after that. I said when it was mentioned that it’s not just that easy that there will be others in line.”
