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Top prospect Gary Cully to make major step-up on Conlan Homecoming card


Gary Cully [4(2)-0] will make a major step-up at the end of this month.

The Naas lightweight boxes on the Mick Conlan homecoming undercard at the SSE Odyssey Arena in Belfast on Saturday June 30th and will face, by far, the toughest test of his career.

In a step-up to six rounds, Cully will fight Hungarian dangerman Zoltan Szabo [24(10)-12(4)].

The Central European 24-year-old is well-known on the circuit and represents a huge early test in the career of Cully.

The Magyar has ruled the roost in his home country, winning 20 out of 20 including the Hungarian light welterweight title. He’s caused his fair share of shocks on the road too, ending the unbeaten records of prospects Zack Davies, Ilhami Aydemir, and Andranik Hakobyan as well as famously stopping Dublin’s Stephen Ormond to the body in the fifth round of their clash in Scotland in October 2016.

Always game, Szabo regulary comes in at late notice and above his natural weight – as could be seen last night when he went the distance with Olympic welterweight gold medalist Daniyar Yeleussinov, after which Cully was able to announce that he would be fighting him on June 30th.

All of the ‘Sticky Man’s’ stoppage defeats have come versus light welters, losing on cuts to Ohara Davies, stopped to the body in the ninth round by light welter Robbie Davies Jr, in the second by light welter Jason Easton, and in the first by Russian Georgi Chelokhsaev.

Of his eight points defeats, last night versus Yeleussinov was the first time Szabo lost every round, with the Budapest boxer always seeming to cause problems. He has dropped European lighteight champion Emiliano Marsili, lost by a point to Lee Appleyard, been competitive with European super featherweight champion Devis Boschiero, Armenian Vladimir Sarukhanyan, and in his rematch with Stephen Ormond, as well as losing a tight fight German James Cherejj.

zoltan szaboThe Pete Taylor and Niall Barrett-trained Cully will become the second-least experienced prospect, after Yeleussinov, to take on Szabo, a task he aims to rise to in just his fifth fight.

The Sarto southpaw debuted last September with a quick-fire knockout of Gyula Tallosi before stopping the ultra-durable Josh Thorne. The Kildare fighter then dominated and dropped the much larger Kane Baker before again outclassing Pal Olah at the start of the year. Cully saw a fight in Liverpool in March fall through at the last minute and has been working toward a step-up ever since.

Cully v Szabo, which is hoped will be shown live on BT Sport and BoxNation, joins a packed undercard which also features the super featherweight rematch between Jono Carroll and Deco Geraghty, Tyrone McCullagh’s BBBoC Celtic super bantamweight title fight with Joe Ham, Tyrone McKenna’s challenge of WBO Inter-Continental light welter champ Jack Catterall, Paddy Gallagher v Gary Corcoran, and Lewis Benson v Johnny Coyle.

Also featuring on the card are Cully’s fellow prospects Lewis Crocker, Padraig McCrory, and Taylor McGoldrick along with England’s Sunny Edwards.

Top Rank’s Conlan tops the bill versus recent world title challenger Adeilson Dos Santos.

Kildare Boxing is proudly supported by Liffey Crane Hire

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Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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