Maloney wants Rock for Sutherland
29 June 2009 – By Mark Doyle
Rising super-middleweight star Darren Sutherland is being pushed towards a mouth-watering domestic dust-up with Jim Rock.
Sutherlands promoter, Frank Maloney, has been thrilled by the way in which his undefeated charge, who is now 3-0, has taken to life in the paid ranks.
Indeed, the Londoner believes that Sutherland is almost ready to challenge for a major belt and has set his sights on the evergreen Rock, who has won Irish titles at four different weights.
“The progress Darren has made with his trainer Brian Lawrence is astonishing, and he could be ready for a title later this year, Maloney enthused.
“When he turned professional in December, I thought it would be 18 months before he’d be ready, but there is no stopping him.
“There are some good Irish-Americans who could challenge him for the all-Ireland title, but the opponent I would like is Jim Rock.
It would be a great fight between two Dubliners who would be so fired up because of local bragging rights.”
Sutherland is to take on Gennadiy Rasalev at York Hall on Monday and, provided he overcomes that hurdles, will box again on the undercard of the Tony Jeffries-headlined bill in Sunderland ten days later.
