Daniel O’Sullivan targets Irish light middleweight work
Daniel O’Sullivan says he is in that pocket of light middleweights that are Irish title keen and wants to put himself in the frame for some domestic dailances with a win this weekend.
The Celtic Warrior Gym fighter was on the verge of early all Irish action last year but has become somewhat of a forgoten man of the now packed division after being out for 11 months.
The 28-year-old returns against Martin Balog on the ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’ card in Mayo on Sunday night – and has made it clear he’d be more than willing to share the ring with any of the willing 154lbs Irish fighters.
It would pain ‘Daniel San’ greatly to be seen to follow stablemate Spike O’Sullivan’s lead and start calling people out – but he does relucantly drop names.
The Dubliner particularly fancies the winner of Owen O’Neill and Dominic Donegan’s March 30 clash, although he is leaning towards those two, as he had positive talks re fighting both last year.
“The goal was to get that Celtic title before the end of last year no matter who I had to fight for it, but that didn’t work out,” he tells Irish-boxing.com.
“It’s good the lads are showing a lot of willingness to fight each and are calling each other out. I’ve only had three fights, a lot of them have had more, but I believe after this weekend I can start, not calling them out, but getting those fights,” he continues before being pushed to get specific.
“I’m not calling him out but I was talking to Donegan’s manager before his last fight and he was saying he’d love to make that fight. Thats the type of fight I’d like. Even O’Neill I’d like to fight him. They are fighting each other, so the winner of that, or any of the lads at the weight.
“There are so many of lads that are at the weight and I’d fight any of those that want Irish fights. I know there are lads at the weight that for some reason don’t want Irish fights but I’ll happily fight any of them.”
With so many fighters talking about straps in and around the weight, the ‘Corduff Canelo’ is aware he will have to impress in on a card on which Dillian Whyte will appear.
The Paschal Collins trained fighter is confident he will do just that and is predicting a knockout.
O’Sullivan suggests he has used his time out the ring wisely and improved on all aspects of his game, including power.
“I’ve spent the whole time working on boxing, technique and my strenght and conditioning. I feel a lot stronger now and my technique is a lot better. The hand injury nearly forced me to use my technique and throw punches proper before I was just winning them,” he adds before paying particular attention to his increased punching power.
“I feel the difference. I was doing little bits of it before but everything was just cardio, so I was always fit getting in the ring but I never felt that strong or had that solid base. Now even hitting the pads and the bag I feel a lot more soild. In sparring I used to go through the motions just to get rounds in, but now, I’m not trying to hurt people because it is sparring, but I’m sitting down on my shots more.and people are feeling the shots more.
“I feel I can get in there and get stuck in properly. The guy I’m fighting has four wins and two loses and his four wins have been knockouts, so he can bang a bit as well. I’ll have to be cautious but I’ll be going for the knockout.”
