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Pizza Power: Regan Buckley was “ready for everything” against Carl McDonald


Not quite the famous ‘Pizzagate’ episode at Old Trafford, where United and Arsenal had a battle of the buffet, but Carl McDonald and Regan Buckley did make the fast food prominent in sport again.

Buckley’s regular pizza-eating social media pictures became a part of the build up to the six round super bantamweight clash.

Some claimed they were innocent, while others suggested the 20 year old was trying to get into McDonald’s head ahead of what fast became a grudge match.

It seemed moving up the weights meant the Bray flyweight could afford a treat or eight during camp.

However, speaking after an impressive eye catching 59-55 win – where cries of pizza-eater came from both sides – Buckley claims he was on a strict diet in the build up the all Irish clash and says he trained like an ‘animal’ for the fight.

The Wicklow youngster didn’t credit pepperoni for his power or mozzarella for his mentality, and he said with a smirk that “all that pizza stuff, to be honest, it wasn’t every week, maybe every couple of weeks!”

“I was strict outside that and I was training like an animal.”

The St Teresa’s fighter went above and beyond for the step-up second fight, travelling to Kieran Farrell’s gym in Manchester for sparring and getting around 200 rounds in in total during the build-up – as well as regularly meditating with Grandmaster Massan Ghorbani.

“We were ready for everything” he added.

“I was training three times a day. I felt strong in sparring. I put on the weight properly.”

Buckley will now most likely move back down through the weights – although he had time for one more treat on Sunday night.

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