“You’ve been boxing bums your whole career” – Anthony Fowler hits back at Craig O’Brien
Anthony Fowler has lashed out at Craig O’Brien [8(0)-0] ahead of the pair’s fight this Saturday night.
The Liverpool light middleweight takes on the Dubliner at the O2 Arena in London as part of the Dillian Whyte v Joseph Parker pay-per-view undercard and was not happy with some comments made by O’Brien.
In a recent interview with Irish-Boxing.com, ‘The Iron’ expressed his confidence ahead of the eight-round clash as well as stating his belief that Fowler was not one of Matchroom’s premier prospects.
READ: Craig O’Brien confident of surprising Anthony Fowler
One quote in particular perturbed Fowler – O’Brien’s summation of his Rio Olympic campaign where he was dropped and dominated in his opening bout by eventual quarter-finalist Zhanibek Alimkhanuly of Kazakhstan.
The inner-city Dub said that “this kid [Fowler], he went to Rio and he did fuck all in Rio. He went to Rio and he got beat in the first round and the simple reason why was because he wasn’t bleedin’ good enough. He’s no Josh Kelly, he’s no Ted Cheeseman.”
Fowler [6(5)-0] would respond on Twitter, promising to make O’Brien “eat these words”, detailing the pedigree of Alimkhanuly, and taking aim at O’Brien’s pro career thus far.
Trust me @CraigOBrien6 you will eat these words, I lost to the youngest middleweight world champion in history at Rio, you’ve been boxing bums your whole career, 1 them dropped even you, imagine what am gonna do #TeamMachine pic.twitter.com/iEvhgqBDkn
— Anthony Fowler (@afowler06) July 26, 2018
Fowler’s coach, Dave Coldwell, would also pitch in.
No need to explain yourself mate.
Actions on Saturday will speak louder than words on Twitter.
It’s good that we have a real fight with someone who’s not going to run and try to survive as soon as he feels a bit of power.
This is what you’ve been wanting.
This is boxing https://t.co/hTlHsmO4Mv— Dave Coldwell (@davidcoldwell) July 26, 2018
The fight this weekend will be the biggest test of both fighters’ respective pro careers, with Fowler being a heavy favourite.
The pair have one common opponent – Jay Byrne – who O’Brien outpointed over ten rounds for the Irish title and Fowler impressively stopped in the fourth of their six rounder.
Byrne, labelled a bum by Fowler, would have a joking response and the Scouser would then belittle the result.
I know he meant 7 bums and 1 legend but autocorrect came into play
— Jay Byrne (@JayByrneKO) July 26, 2018
Ran away from you I heard, an u got late notice ‍♂️ https://t.co/ArY7MwdGV8
— Anthony Fowler (@afowler06) July 26, 2018
