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Bradley plans to be Ireland’s biggest star- but not just yet

Callum Bradley has visualised himself at the summit, but can only see it his mind for now and he is happy with that.

The young Omagh prospect wants to one of the biggest Irish names in the sport, but is in no rush to get there.

The 20 year old is aware he both has time on his side and a lot to learn before big fights come around.

As a result for now he is happy to stay busy and learn on the job.

“I know where I can be, but I am going to take my time,” he told Irish-boxing.com after registering his second pro win on Friday night.

“I am not going to be stupid. I could have 15 years left you never know, that’s lots of time. Hopefully I get  four or five fights this year anyway.

“You have Frampton who is the superstar at featherweight, then you have Michael Conlan a superstar who might be moving down to super bantam and hopefully I come in as the superstar after him. That’s what I plan on doing, but I am only 20 I have time to get there.”

Bradley was speaking after having his hand raised for the second time as a pro. The multiple time Irish amateur champion out pointed 70 fight veteran Rafael Castillo on the undercard of Ryan Burnett’s return – and was happy with his display and how he progressed since his March debut.  

“He is tough enough, he went four rounds with James Tennyson and James can bang. He also gave Ryan Doyle a tough fight and he fought Jordan Gill, so it shows. Obviously it’s early, but it does give you confidence. I feel like I am tough enough I haven’t really got a clean shot yet, but I feel like I can take these shots,” he adds before giving an example of that on the job learning.

“I was happy with my debut I didn’t need to change much. It just wanted to pick my shots better and calm down a bit. This time I was picking my shots and landed harder punches.

“We watched him on Youtube, we watch all our opponents, even this early, it deosn’t matter who you fight. We noticed he always dropped the left hand so we were catching him with the over hand right all night.”

Super featherweight ‘Cool’ claims he has fallen back in love with the sport and hopes to be out again on the massive Conlan Nikitin undercard.

“I will be back out in August, hopefully. It would be brilliant to fight in Falls Park in front of 8,000 people.

“I am loving it. For the last two years as an amateur I wasn’t really enjoying it. I was training just for training sake I wasn’t motivated at all. Now I am really loving it again.”

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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