No red carpet laid out for ‘Irish Mayweather’ – Bradley has to do it the hard way

Tiernan Bradley has come to the pro party with his chest puffed out, sporting a peacock mustache and with no intentions of sitting alone in the corner.

Considering the amount of press the yet to debut pro has received and the hyped welcome the ‘Irish Mayweather’ has been given, you’d be forgiven for assuming he got an invite of one of the top promoters in the game and had a pass to the VIP section.

Yet the red carpet hasn’t been laid out for the Steven O’Rourke trained stylist. Quite the opposite in fact.

The 23-year-old relocated to Dublin early last year with the intentions of turning straight over, but real life got in the way.

The Steven O’Rourke trained welterweight hopeful soon got a lesson in finance.

With no big promotional offer on the table Bradley had to take a year out to work and save in order to buy himself the opportunity to become a full time pro.

“I moved to Dublin in January 2019 with the full attention of turning pro,” Bradley told Irish-boxing.com.

“I thought the process would of happened relatively quick, but soon realised it just wouldn’t be possible to live and train there without a steady income.

“I had to make the sacrifice for my future and ended up moving into a shared house with 6 other people, myself and my girlfriend. We lived out of a tiny room for a year, we both worked everyday saving and saving everything we got until I was able to move out into an apartment and train full time as a professional boxer.”

That explains the absence from the scene in 2019. There were suggestions having been part of team Conor McGregor ahead of ‘The Notorious’ mega money Floyd Mayweather clash, Bradley was off living the life.

He reveals that wasn’t the case and accounts for his whereabouts in 2018.

“In relation to the living the life after McGregor, I made the decision in 2018 to take a break from competitive boxing. People don’t know I still trained everyday.

“I just traveled for 3 months around the USA and Canada, but again I never stopped working towards my goal of turning pro.

“I was stationed in a pro gym in New York called “Champs Gym” it was a fantastic old school boxing gym I sparred every single day against some brilliant American Pro Boxers and this just give me even more encouragement to get where I wanted to be,” he adds before revealing another source of encouragement.

“Adam Hunter truly believed in me and continuously told me I was going to a world champ some day. He always encouraged me to stay boxing. He sacrificed living a normal life for the 10 years I was competing. He trained me every single day and treated me as if I was one of his sons. The sacrifices he made for my success are unreal and I will forever be thankful for his dedication and belief in me.”

Bradley believes St Michaels Inchicore gym is the best place to get him to where he wants to be.

Most would have surmised the confident prospect would head to Belfast to train if he didn’t believe Tyrone could give him what he needed, but Bradley has gone south not north and explains why.

“I moved to Dublin purely for boxing purposes,” he adds.

“I am from a small town in Tyrone which doesn’t have any boxers at both level and weight, therefore for sparring I was always travelling anyway. I used to travel to Dublin regularly to O’Rourke’s gym and spar their pro boxers every week, as they have great open sparring on a Saturday.

“I also went on a couple of trips with the gym to England for both training and sparring where I got in the ring with many pros such as Tyrone Nurse. I then began to get close with Steven the owner and head coach at O’Rourke’s gym and made the decision to transition over to pro with him being my coach. Dublin has a lot more opportunities for me when it comes to boxing. I have been enjoying it and see myself here for the foreseeable future.”