Donegal’s Shaun McShane looking for Scottish revenge on Friday

This Friday, Donegal light welterweight Shaun McShane [4(0)-3(0)-1] challenges champion Eddie Doyle [17(3)-3(2)] for the Scottish title at the Alona Hotel in Motherwell.

The top-of-the-bill clash is a rematch of their first title fight back in March, which was narrowly won by Doyle, and McShane promises that he wont leave anything to chance this time round.

That night earlier this year, also in Motherwell, saw referee Victor Loughlin, score the bout 96:95 in favour of Doyle. McShane felt aggrieved by what went on that evening and described the suspicious circumstances to Irish-Boxing.com.

He admits that a factor in the loss “might have been a little bit of inexperience on my behalf – I started a bit slower than how I usually fight, I wasn’t taking anything but maybe he looked busier.”

However, the Rosses boxer feels he landed what was essentially a knockout blow during the contest, only for it to not count. He explained that he landed a “perfect body shot which he wouldn’t have got up from, but they claimed it was a low blow.”

“He got the benefit of the doubt from the ref and he got two minutes to recover.”

“Plus, he spat two different gumshields out a total of five times and never got a warning or a point off.

“So when you put all that together you can see how it went. As I upped my game from the fourth he just hung on and messed it up.”

“But that’s the past now, you learn.”

Following the controversy-filled title clash, the Glasgow-based Ulsterman noted how “there wasn’t much doubt there would be a rematch.”

Indeed 36 year old McShane is approaching this weekend’s clash quite similarly to the first bout, and revealed how “as far as training goes, I was more than fit for ten rounds the last time. I train hard for any fight and I don’t really take time off in between.”

“I added couple of different sparring partners but, apart from that, camp has just been as hard as usual and that’s the way it has to be – as they say ‘train hard, fight easy.'”

One thing that is different is McShane’s mentality, and he does not want to leave anything to chance and outlined how “one sure thing is this will be a tough fight and I’ve a feeling something’s gotta give. I don’t intend to leave it to the ref or judges this time, at the end of the day I’m still fighting in his back yard so he’s the home fighter.”

“I’m ready now, hard work’s done, so it’s just going to be how we turn up on the night.”