Gratti – Tude – Glenn Byrne happy with another early test
Glenn Byrne is happy to show his big brother Jay Byrne some Gratti-tude heading into another tough early fight this weekend.
Having faced Alan White and Martin Shaw in his first three fights, the Dubliner has probably earned a more routine learning fight, but instead, he’s been a Leaving Cert level test when he is effectively at the Junior Cert stage of his career.
Getting no favours from his brother, who doubles up as manager and coach, Byrne fights Octavian Gratii over six on the JB Promotions card at the Warehouse this coming Friday night.
The Moldovan is known to Irish fight fans as an away fighter with the potential to cause trouble and at the very least an opponent that can guarantee rounds. He got a draw against Graham McCormack at the venue for Friday’s clash and has gone the distance with the likes of Lewis Crocker, Edward Donovan and Peter Carr.
Byrne knows he will have to work for the win but says that is all part of a learning-on-the-job plan for a fighter with no amateur experience.
“He’s a tough opponent, he’s fought a lot of good fighters, and he doesn’t get stopped. I’m expecting 6 tough rounds, he doesn’t stop and throws good volume of punches so I’ll need to be clever,” he tells Irish-boxing.com.
“Jay and Matthew [Tyndall Sr} have a plan for me. I need to learn on the job and these type of opponents do this for me. Each fight we pick a different style and tough opponent so I can work on different things and try cover all basis of a fighter, so that when I step up to more evenly matched fights I’ve covered all angles.”
It’s a difficult approach but one that Byrne can already see the benefit of.
“My first and third fight taught me a lot. The second fight was a great buzz, but I didn’t learn from it. I continued training the same way as I did for the second as I did for the third and only realised after that I wasn’t fit or sharp enough. So I had to make adjustments for this camp. Every camp I’m learning and working on new things,” he adds before predicting six hard rounds on the Rise or Fall card.
“I’m expecting a tough six-round fight, that I come out on top with a points win.”
