Man on a mission Mathew Fitzsimons “back for good” following long break

Mathew Fitzsimons [3(2)-0] admits he was close to calling it a day but is adamant that he is both back for good and back better than ever.

The giant super featherweight has impressed every time he has stepped in the ring, but unfortunate for him and his fans his appearances on cards have been sporadic.

Two wins in 2015 were followed by an 18 month sabbatical and ‘The Thunder’ hasn’t fought since a points win over Michael Barnor in April of 2017.

After an amicable split with ‘good friend’ and former manager Kieran Farrell, who is making waves promoting across the water, Fitzsimons yesterday signed a long term deal with Assassin Promotions.

The Belfast fighter’s new promoters told Irish-Boxing.com that they hope to keep their new charge busy this year before pushing for titles in 2019 – and Fitzsimons is happy with how things have turned out so far.

“Kaz [Evans] and Connor [Slater] are two real nice guys. I’ve literally only signed with them a couple of weeks and they already have me fighting in the 21st of July in Liverpool, that just shows you how good they are,” the fighter told Irish-Boxing.com.

Just having a date is a big turnaround for the beanpole boxer. Fitzsimons says he was always ready and willing to fight over the last year but, after a number of fights fell through, he admits retirement crossed his mind.

“You could say I was out for a year but that wasn’t the case I had two fights lined up one in October and one in February, unfortunately they both didn’t happen. It seems to be routine with me to have a fight then not fight for months,” he added before stressing things have changed.

“I’m telling you, this is me back and back for good. I’ve got great management looking after me and I’ll be out two or three times before December.”

“I was close to packing it in a couple of times but I believe I have a lot of talent, I’m a 6 foot 2 inch super featherweight who can punch like a train. I’m giving this my everything this time.”

“I’m over the moon to be back! I can’t wait to get in the ring especially now that I feel I’m a lot better than what I was a year ago! No one has seen anything from me yet. Once I get on a roll and get a bit of ring rust off everyone will see how good I am.”

Not only is Fitzsimons officially back and more motivated than ever, the 21-year-old also claims he returns a much improved fighter.

The fighter has been working with former European super middleweight champion Brian Magee since the turn of the year and is noticing the improvements.

“I’ve been training with Brian Magee from January and I feel I’ve came on and changed a lot since then. He’s changed things I do and corrected bad habits that I have. We have made small adjustments and they have made a big impact on my punching power as well as my technique.”

“The training he puts me through is unbelievably hard, I thought I trained hard before but now I know how hard I have to train if I want to go far in this sport.”

Such are the improvements made that the Assassin puncher, who is soon to be a first time dad, claims fans should be excited about what lies ahead.

“Fans can expect to see a new and improved Mathew Fitzsimons,” he continued.

“I’ve was upset with my last fight because I was in with an awkward opponent who wouldn’t commit and made it a bit of a boring fight, but it was a decent performance and I only got hit two clear shots the whole fight.”

“You’re going to see a man on a mission from here on out. I’m so glad to finally have things working out for myself, me and my girlfriend are expecting are first baby in December and, honestly, it’s lit a fire in me, and I don’t care who doesn’t believe in me or who doubts me but after I get maybe three warm up fights out of the way I’ll be looking to push for titles.”

“The short term plan is to get this fight on the 21st of July over with get the win and put on a good performance then have another one or two fights before 2019 and then I’ll be pushing for titles.”