‘Frailties’ removed – ‘Bulletproof’ Graham McCormack ready to bring Celtic title home
‘Bulletproof’ Graham McCormack [6(1)-0] is primed to perform after a performance coach got rid of ‘frailties’ that have hampered him previously, according to manager Ian Gaughran.
‘The G’Train’ has always appeared full steam ahead ready and is one of the more vibrant and positive members of the Irish fight family.
However, he has more recently been extremely honest about his past addiction problems and how, although clean and healthy, he has to make sure an addict’s mindset doesn’t attempt to ruin his prep and hence his performance.
Considering he is undefeated he has always won that battle but his manager claims it’s a mentally draining war he hasn’t had to have during camp for the biggest fight of his life.
McCormack has employed a performance coach and it means he goes into his Glasgow hosted BUI Celtic middleweight title fight with Paul Kean [13(1)-2] in mint mental and peak physical condition says his manager.
“I genuinely believe we’ll see the best version of Graham, until now, in the ring in Glasgow,” Gaughran told Irish-boxing.com.
“Shaun Kelly has put together a brilliant camp and he’s been sparring with Lee Reeves, the Donovan boys and even Jay Quigley, so it’s all been brilliant and sets him up to bring that belt home to Limerick.
“He’s fit, physically better than I’ve seen him and also mentally. Previous frailties have gone since he’s been working with a performance coach, and he’s bulletproof going into this fight.”
Gaughran may see McCormack as bulletproof but says the team are aware the Scot, who holds a win over Jay Byrne, still has weapons to do damage.
“We’re under no illusions as to task at hand, Paul Kean is extremely talented, but he’s primed and ready and I can only see one outcome – Graham winning,” he adds before affording himself the chance to glance beyond the horizon and reveal what victory would lead to.
“It will be a huge night for him going forward too as obviously winning this immediately sets up an Irish title tilt and that’s obviously what every Irish fighter works towards before moving on to international level.”
“Life hasn’t always been easy for me. If I’m honest I’ve lived a very rough life, tough mentally more than anything else, so this title shows me how far I have come and that everything I have worked hard for has been worth it.”https://t.co/FDQw57rPCF @GrahamMccormac7 @SamKynoch
— Irish-Boxing.com (@Irishboxingcom) November 9, 2021
McCormack returned from a two-year plus sabbatical against Jordan Latimer in September. Gaughran believes it was the ideal fight to re-introduce the 34-year-old southpaw to competitive action and also revealed he took the fight with an injury and whilst suffering the after-effects of COVID.
“It’s been a steep upward curve since Graham and I have been working together in June and this is the first step towards him achieving what we set out to do,” Gaughran continued.
“It’s mad, because he caught Covid before his comeback fight in September and also had pretty serious damage to his rotator cuff and was still getting that worked on on the afternoon of the fight just to get him into the ring.
“And he had a really tough, unexpectedly so, night against Jordan Latimer but that did him the world of good and it’s set him up lovely for Friday night,” he adds before thanking the show’s promoter for giving McCormack the opportunity.
“And I must say, we have a great relationship with Sam Kynoch and Kynoch Boxing – he’s helped kick-start Graham’s career by trusting him on his shows, and we look forward to working him in the future too.
“There’s also the obvious bonus that the fight main events the bill and it will be live on Fightzone, which is a massive platform for Graham to showcase his skills – you look at what Fightzone has done with the likes of Hannah Rankin and Dean Sutherland in just the last couple of weeks, so it’s a great opportunity for Graham and one he will grasp with both hands.”
