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Cillian Reardon ready for career progression following headline win


Cillian Reardon [3(0)-0] believes he showed enough on Saturday night to say goodbye to four rounders for good.

The Stillorgan middleweight prospect outpointed the much bigger Michal Ciach on the ‘Rise Again’ card at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght and is confident he displayed enough to persuade his team he is ready to for the next rung on the boxing ladder.

“I said I wanted to have a decent performance to finish up on four rounders and I think that I did that,” Reardon told Irish-Boxing.com post his third pro win.

“I would like to move to six rounds now and go from there. I hope I don’t have to do a four rounder again but I’ll listen to what everyone says.”

There was hype surrounding Reardon’s win. He topped the bill after Allan Phelan’s fight was cancelled at late notice, was escorted into the ring by Dublin rock royalty Aslan, and was cheered on by Leinster and Irish rugby stars en-route to a 40-37 points win.

However, after all the mini madness, there was a real sense of calm as the Leinster Rugby Strength and Conditioning coach sat alone in his dressing room.

The St Michael’s Inchicore fighter was more thoughtful than most as he reflected on the performance without the bias of adrenaline or excess emotion.

“There is stuff I didn’t do that I wanted to or planned to,” he admitted. “I got caught a lot coming back. I feel like my head movement was quite good on the way in, I was finding angles, throwing and landing combos but, coming back, I was getting hit clean.”

“I was lucky in a way because he is a big lad and in the second round he caught me clean. It is a bit frustrating that in a fight I dominated I gave someone a chance to win. I shook the shot off but it shouldn’t have happened.”

For the third time in his pro career a much bigger fighter manned the away corner.

However, rather than call for a middleweight opponent, the Dubliner was just happy to have been handed a fight on a night where four fights fell through in the hours leading up to first bell.

Reardon also claims size wasn’t an issue in terms of preventing him from getting a stoppage and believes with more rounds he could have taken the Polish light heavyweight out.

“I think if the fight was over six I could have wore him down. I think his engine was waning. I was landing body shots on the inside and I could feel him softening up,” mused the 31-year-old.

“The big thing for me is the lads keep getting me fights. In this game lads let you down. I was scheduled to fight five times, I have fought three, on two of those times lads pulled out last minute and Assassin had to scramble around to get me an opponent.”

“To be fair they have done that and kept me going,” noted ‘Killer Cillian’.

It’s not something he screams about but the high-profile nature of his support has garnered attention for Reardon from the more mainstream media outlets.

While he is keen not to be viewed as a gimmicky fighter – and his performances in the ring have proven he is far from that – the softly spoken puncher is extremely gratious for his support, especially on a night when Leinster Rugby had defeated Munster just hours previously.

“It’s a nice little twist and I am grateful for the support,” he continued.

“The lads [Leinster players and staff] coming from the Aviva today too was great. I am grateful for the support.

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

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