‘If your cornerman is braver than you, you’re f***ed’ – Feargal McCrory grateful his team saved him from himself
Feargal McCrory is grateful his corner wasn’t as brave as him.
‘Fearless’ produced one of the gutsiest displays of any Irish fighter in a world title fight when he challenged Lamont Roach for WBA super featherweight belt late last month.
The Tyrone native never took a backward step, rose to his feet after being dropped on three separate occasions, and fought on despite an obvious rib injury.
It was so defiant that it got the ‘too brave for his own good’ stage and the corner took action into their own hands, eventually throwing in the towel in the eight.
Aware the challenger was never going to raise the white flag, Colin Morgan flung in the white towel – and speaking after the 32-year-old was grateful he did.
“I went out on my shield and thank you to [trainer] Colin Morgan for saving me from myself,”McCrory said.
“ I’m not going to stop it. I trust him enough. He made the call, and I respect that decision as being the right call. If your cornerman is braver than your fighter, you’re f***ed.”
“We knew he was going to be sharp early on. We wanted to wear him down and take him to the late rounds — it wasn’t the case. It didn’t work out that way. I went into his hometown, the lion’s den, and came up short. He was better than me on the night.”
It was always going to be a huge ask for McCrory, who had never fought at anywhere near the level previously. However, he dared dream and the fighter, who got reward in the form of fight fan respect rather a title, says he has no regrets.
“We rolled the dice. We dared to be good. We came to the champion’s backyard. And we were second best. But you know what? When this fight was offered to me, we jumped on it. We knew Lamont was a good fighter. They don’t give out world titles.”
Although his stock rose with such a performance the reverse still hurt.
“I wanted to win. I believed I could win. I trained to win. But listen: full credit to Lamont. … I lost to the better man. He hit me more than I hit him. I don’t know what more to say.”
