Home Sick Ryan O’Rourke ‘Wants Home’
Ryan O’Rourke wants to come home.
The all-action Dub has boxed in more countries than most fighters manage in an entire career, clocking up serious airmiles since he first punched for pay.
America has become his fight home of late, thanks to a link-up with Star Boxing, and he trades leather in Huntington this weekend.
However, the O’Rourke’s Gym fighter, who has graced rings in Spain, Belgium, England, and the U,S says the worldwide adventure is beginning to lose its shine.
After years of living out of suitcases, cutting weight in foreign apartments the message from home is getting louder and louder.
When are you coming back? The Answer? Hopefully soon.
“The thing everyone asks me after ‘When’s the next fight?’ is ‘Can I go to it?’” he says when speaking to Irish-boxing.com. “And then I have to tell them, ‘Boys, it’s in New York… again.’ I feel like a broken record at this stage.”
The support has never wavered — but the frustration is real. His friends and family want to see him in the flesh, not through a livestream at 3am Irish time.
“They’re sick of hearing the same answer from me,” he admitted. “I’m getting homesick. I want to fight in front of my own crowd and hear that big cheer when I walk out. I want to give people a night out they can actually get to.”
It’s not that O’Rourke doesn’t enjoy his Stateside visits but he would like an Irish element to his career.
“Maybe a fight or two against an Irish lad in Ireland next year between the American fights,” he said. “I’d love that. Just to be home, to feel that energy. It’d be special.”
The domestic scene is picking up massively and O’Rourke wants in.
There are plenty of fights for the ‘Silent Assassin’ around the weight but he isn’t ranked by the BUI. Still he remains hopeful.
“Hopefully it happens soon soon,” he said. “I’ve done Europe. I’ve done America. Now I want home.
“They are calling me the globe trotter,” he joked. “But honestly? I’m ready to be home. Even one show. Let me feel that Dublin roar once.”
Before any trip home the 26-year-old will have to pass his toughest test to date, as he faces undefeated American Jerome Baxter.
