Gary Cully believes he matches Haney, Kambosos, Lopez, Davis, and Co for ability
Gary Cully [14(8)-0] believes he would win a lightweight division game of Top Trumps if ability was the category being contested.
However, he is aware star names like undisputed champion Devin Haney, all-time great Vasiliy Lomachenko, the man that beat the original man Teófimo López, Gervonta Davis, George Kambosos Jr and co would take the battle if experience and rounds were brought into play.
That is something the now Matchroom fighter wants to amend over the next 12 months. ‘The Diva’ fights Jaouad Belmehdi [16(7)-0-3] on the undercard of Katie Taylor’s undisputed defence against Karen Elizabeth Carabajal live on DAZN tonight in his first fight since officially signing with Eddie Hearn.
Now with serious promotional backing behind him, the Nass southpaw believes he can start closing in on some of the biggest names in the sport.
The Pete Taylor trained fighter has talked about a world title shot in Croke Park in the Summer, possibly an IBO title fight with promotional stablemate Maxi Hughes, and believes by this time next year he could be in pound-for-pound action.
“I believe I’m right there ability wise and I’ve always believed that,” he told Irish-boxing.com in fight week.
“But experience-wise and rounds-wise? I’ve gone past six rounds once in my career and had 14 fights. These guys are 25-0 and have done 12 rounds a dozen times. Experience wise I’m maybe two or three fights off if I go through the rounds, but then again it’s never my aim to go through the rounds. I go into the ring to knock everybody out and I’m coming for your head in round 1.
“Hopefully when I get there I’ve never gone that distance, but from a promoter or manager’s viewpoint, they may want me to have done 12 rounds two or three times. Overall I believe I’m 12 months away from those fights.”
The 26-year-old Irish champion already believes he is upgrading experience-wise. He claims his win over Miquel Vazquez last time out has seen him level up to the extent he has gone from a wide-eyed fighter looking to take his chance, to a wiser fighter determined to maintain his positive rate of progress.
“I gained massive experience fighting Vazquez, that was a big step up for me. I gained experience from that fight and built on it. It’s the first time I’ve come into fight week feeling like the experienced one. I’ve always been the young guy taking on the more experienced lad and it feels the other way around now. Times are changing and it feels good.”
Croke Park has been a huge topic of discussion throughout fight week with Irish media pressing Hearn on whether or not he will help Katie Taylor have the homecoming she deserves.
Cully claims his boss is keen and says it’s Hearn that needs the support.
“It’s up to Ireland whether it happens or not. Eddie is full-on when it comes to making it happen. Katie has plans to make it happens, from the boxing side of things it will for sure happen. We need the people to get behind it, we need the government to get behind it and push it. It would go down in history, it will be a special night for Ireland, Croke Park, and boxing. If the people get behind I can see it happening in May or June.”
Picture By Mark Robinson Matchroom Boxing
