Paddy Gallagher admits Craig O’Brien is ‘stuck in my head’ – Pat Man targets Irish champion

Paddy Gallagher [16(10)-6(0)] admits he has Craig O’Brien [11(1)-2(0)] on the mind and would love to fight the Dubliner on the proposed July all Irish showdown.

Indeed, ‘The Pat Man’ suggests it’s the perfect fight for him, the show and even Irish champion O’Brien.

The BUI Celtic light middleweight champion and BBBofC Celtic welterweight title winner, has been one of four names put forward for a behind closed doors show in the works for Belfast.

Such is the current situation, that if that show can go ahead it will be an all Irish event.

News of the domestic nature of the card has excited fans and got them speculating as to who will face who.

Irish-boxing.com surveyed the landscape earlier in the week. In that piece we suggested, that if Gallagher wanted to comeback from his controversial British and Commonwealth title defeat to Chris Jenkins in a big fight, that O’Brien would prove ideal.

It seems the 31-year-old Belfast fighter does want a meaningful fight and after reading the article can’t look past ‘The Iron’.

“I really hope the show does come off. We’ve all been waiting long enough. It’ll be close to a year since my last fight so want to get a slice of the action,” Gallagher told Irish-boxing.com.

“I’m hoping for a good fight, the one that is stuck in my head now is Craig O’Brien since your article yesterday.

“I talked about it a few weeks ago and since he has an Irish title and at that weight – preferably 150lb catch weight – it is the perfect fight.”

O’Brien is keen to bring his career to the next level. The Dubliner, who like Gallagher has a strong following, had tried his luck on Sky shows losing to both Anthony Fowler and Keiran Conway. He since revealed he was looking to drop down to welterweight and was hoping to benefit from coach Pascal Collins links to Murphys Boxing in America.

With travel now being restricted, Gallagher believes it’s a fight that would appeal to the natural boxer.

“I’m sure he would take it. Craig as he has been looking this sort of one.”

With the lockdown in place you’d have to wonder if the fighters have enough time to reach peak fitness and form by July.

The Belfast fighter admits it’s not ideal, but isn’t one to dwell on the negatives.

“With training I will be ok, I’ll make it work one way or another,” he adds in typical positive fashion.

“I’m not hard to please, in a way. If I get sparring the last couple of week I’ll be happy but I can keep at everything I’m doing for the time being,” he adds before stressing he has enjoyed lockdown.

“I’ve loved the break. I’ve been working from home being busy still. The weather has helped an awful lot too. I am home with Rachel and the kids, bit of sit back time and I’ve been training away moderately,” he adds before leaving a little message for any potential opponent.

“I picked the training up the last two weeks.”