Sean McComb – “At 64kg I can’t see anybody beating me”

The psychotic-looking celebrations of Sean McComb got another outing on Friday night in Dublin.

The Belfast southpaw won a third Irish Elite Senior title at the National Stadium, moving up in weight to defeat Ballynacargy light welter Wayne Kelly in what was the highest-quality bout of the night.

A tactical encounter, the range of McComb proved to be the deciding factor and he took a close but clear win over the talented Westmeath boxer who sportingly applauded the decision.

Afterwards McComb described how “it was the sort of fight I expected – cagey, in-and-out. Wayne has a very good boxing brain and he’s been in the High Performance Unit training with us now for the last two years, he knows what he’s about and he’s a very tricky operator.”

“The first and second rounds were very, very tight. I felt I was landing the cleaner punches, just. The third round, my game plan was ‘don’t get hit, don’t get hit and you can’t lose.’ And that’s what I done, you could see him getting more frustrated, edging forward into my range more and I was throwing single jabs, single lefts. That’s the game plan.”

“I was getting in a habit of getting in and fighting. I love fighting. I’d fight seven days a week – but it’s just not for me, I’m too big for it. “So this week I really worked on not doing it. Because if I go in and fight anybody, it’s 50-50. But if I stay on the back foot it’s 80-20 in my favour. It worked very well, thankfully.”

The Turf Lodge puncher brought a loud pocket of fans with him to Dublin, and really seemed to be enjoying the occasion.

McComb noted that “it’s all about getting into the winning mentality in the big ring at the Stadium, I love it, it’s the best buzz of the year. You wont get that in the World Championships or anywhere else.”

“All the boys came down, they love it, that’s a good day out for them, get them out of Belfast for a while. It was great support as usual. A lot of my mates couldn’t come down because there’s a do on for the football team I play for, St James Swifts. I would have five times the amount of people here and it would have been a lot louder, but they did a fantastic job.”

24 year old McComb elected against turning pro with MTK last year, and now is targeting more major medals to add to the European Games bronze he won in 2015.

He outlined how “I spoke to my coaches. Zaur and Mickey [Hawkins] just encouraged me to stay [amateur], at least for this year anyway. Just play it by ear. And with the Europeans and Worlds, why not? I feel I’ll beat anybody in the world on my day. ”

“It’s absolutely fantastic just to get the win and go back into the High Performance Unit as the number one and I’ve the European and World Championships to look forward to this year, and the WSB. There’s a massive year ahead and it all started tonight.”

“I have the experience now. I’ve been to two Worlds and two Europeans. I just feel that I have matured massively into the weight. At 64kg I can’t see anybody beating me so I’m going to take it one fight at a time from now until the end of the year and hopefully I’m successful.”

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)