Wilton eyes Irish rivals after comeback win – “I’d fight any of them if the money was right”
Matthew ‘Speedy’ Wilton [14(3)-0] is ready to put his foot on the gas and start accelerating toward title fights.
The Belfast fighter returned to the ring for the first time in just over a year with a routine shutout points win over Kevin McAuley [11(0)-130(11)-10] in his home town last night.
The 26 year old, who looked relatively impressive against the boxing centurion, is now keen for a run of activity and is confident that, with regular fights, he can be a name in one of Irish boxing’s more interesting weight classes – light welter.
“I was out of the ring a year last week. I was too inactive so I really need to start getting active again. There was no fights or shows really. It was just unfortunate it’s time to get back into it now. Bernardo [Checa] went away to Spain for while too so I didn’t really have a trainer. I’ve a bit of a mixture of trainers at the minute until I get going again,” Wilton told Irish-Boxing.com after extending his winning streak.
“I want to start boxing regular and nibbling the weight down. I want to get back down to light welter. That’s a division I believe I can win titles in, maybe go for the Celtic title next year. I think I can be in the mix with the light welters here after one or two fights. They have all sort of been in the situation I am in now. Look at McKenna he went through it two years ago. Gallagher, look at him last week, inactivity killed him a bit too. I’d fight any of them if the money was right.”
Despite the sabbatical, the younger yet bigger brother of British and European flyweight title challenger Luke, claims he didn’t feel the effects of ring rust against the well traveled journeyman.
“I didn’t really feel I had ring rust. I did plenty of rounds sparring. It was just a short camp. I had three weeks for it, that’s not an excuse, it’s just what it was. He said I hurt him with a good right hand, I think it was the end of the third, which is a complement coming from an experienced journey man like that. It’s all a learning curve.”
