Pierce O’Leary Promises to Lift the Mood
THE gloom left after last weekend’s defeats of Katie Taylor, Gary Cully and Denis Hogan, will lift when Irish fighters get Ws this weekend.
That’s the view of Pierce ‘Big Bang’ O’Leary who says he is in super condition ahead of Saturday’s defence of his WBC International Super Lightweight title.
Speaking on Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions Youtube channel, the Dublin fighter said, “There was a massive buzz the last two weeks in Ireland because of the boxing and there’s a bit of a dampener on it now at the moment. But we’ll lift it back up on Saturday, by me defending my title, bringing it back home to Dublin and also Mick winning the IBF World Title.”
He is delighted to be fighting in Belfast. “It feels good to be back, especially because I had my debut at the Ulster Hall. I see some familiar faces, I’m ready to go, I can’t wait.”
‘Big Bang’ said that he was being told to take it easy as the end of the training camp approached. “This week they had to kick me out of the gym, I wasn’t allowed in the gym. I was literally raring to go. When you saw me a few weeks ago I was in tip top shape, I could have fought that night. I feel really, really good, the weight is great, it’s perfect. I don’t see any fault anywhere, everything is 100%. I’ve ticked every box I can see so far. Everything is really good. When I was training in the gym and hitting the bag, I was being told stop!”
He feels that there would be more supporters travelling north but for the time of year. “Back home in Dublin there’s a lot of communions and confirmations on and a lot of my supporters have kids and stuff like that. They had major days for their family so they couldn’t come and support me, but they’ll be tuning into BT Sport, don’t worry about that.”
When it was put to him that his opponent, the Romanian Alin Florin Ciorceri is likely to provide an aggressive challenge, the Dubliner said, “That’s what I’m hearing, that he’s going to come and fight, he wants to come and be aggressive. I only watched 30 seconds of him, that’s all I do, because as you know every fighter brings a different style. I’ll put a great performance on and hopefully get the KO.”
