Spike O’Sullivan taunts opponent Antoine Douglas over “quit”
Spike O’Sullivan is bang up for a potentially breakthrough fight this coming Saturday, and is causing commotion in Canada.
The Cork middleweight fights for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental title in Laval, Quebec in the chief support bout on the big Billy Joe Saunders v David Lemieux card, live on HBO and BoxNation.
O’Sullivan comes in as the away fighter to take on rising U.S. star Antoine Douglas [22(16)-1(1)], and the Leesider sent some verbal barbs the way of the 25 year old American at today’s final press conference.
The 33 year old Mahon man drew attention to the pair’s respective stoppage losses – and claimed they compare favourably for him.
Back in December 2015, O’Sullivan was retired by his corner in his Sky Box Office chief support bout versus long-time rival Chris Eubank Jr. The rebel was pulled out by his coach Paschal Collins at the end of the seventh after suffering a perforated eardrum which impacted his power and balance.
Three months later in Pennsylvania, Douglas suffered his only career loss when he was stopped in the tenth by Avtandil Khurtsidze. Down in the third and the seventh – and down on the cards – Virginian Douglas was stopped standing in the final round by the stocky Georgian.
O’Sullivan [26(18)-2(1)] was keen to note the difference in the two defeats and described how “we’ve had similar losses, we’ve both been beaten inside the distance, but the difference is – I didn’t quit, my corner stopped me.”
“Antoine was beaten and stopped, he gave up that night, and he’s going to have a similar experience on Saturday night.”
“It’s really cold here, but things are about to get very hot on Saturday night when I step in the ring with my opponent Antoine Douglas. I’ve no doubt I will be victorious. ”
“I look forward to returning to my home country, Ireland, as the champion.”
Trainer Collins echoed these sentiments and stated that “he [Spike] didn’t quit. If I had left Gary in that fight he could have possibly got hurt because he wasn’t one hundred percent, so I decided to pull him out of that fight – but I do know in my heart that he would have gone twelve rounds.”
“We’ve watched Antoine Douglas’s loss, and he quit. He fought a little guy, Khurtsidze – a come forward fighter who throws a lot of shots but doesn’t have much power. Spike has got a lot of power, and I think this is Spike’s time.”
