Headliner Craig McCarthy vows to bring title fights to Waterford

Craig McCarthy [3(0)-0] wants to bring title fights back to Waterford.

The Déise fighter topped the cities first pro boxing in bill in 70 years on Saturday night and ensured a home clean sweep with victory over Bulgarian Teodor Lozanov much to the delight of the large home support. 

If the 30-year-old is to be believed, his following won’t have another long wait before they get to see ring action in the flesh again. ‘Built 2 Last’ is confident he will fight again in the city and is hopeful he can bring title fights to his hometown.

“The crowd was unbelievable out there. I could hear all the chants – BTL was going through my blood at one stage. It was amazing and I want to thank the crowd and every person there.”

“We are going to keep graduating and updating, please god we can bring title fights to Waterford. That’s the plan. I will sit with my team this week and take a week off, but please God we get a title shot in Waterford by the end of the year,” McCarthy said after the fight.

The Waterford super middleweight was topping a bill in just his third fight and admitted there was pressure going into the inaugural Neil Power Promotions ‘Ring Kings’ show.

While it’s hard enough to perform under the spotlight, it’s harder to go through an early doors learning fight under that glare.

McCarthy revealed he felt he found his opponent tricky at times and slowed in the last two rounds and in, that regard, he was just happy to add another win to his record.

The former Elite Championships stalwart described how Lozanov “was clever, I wasn’t expecting him to be that clever, but we got the win. That is what we came for. That’s what it was about tonight.”

“The last two rounds I fell asleep a little bit, but I was on fire, done what I had to do, connected every time, stuck to the plan and everything went sweet as a nut,” he added before paying homage to his Waterford brethren on the show.

“All in a row that is how we done it – up the Déise! The boys were unbelievable. We put on an event, not just a show. It was unreal.”