Gearoid Clancy aiming to get back to winning ways after a cruel year of learning

Galway’s Gearoid Clancy [5(1)-4(0)] will look to get back on the horse in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Oughterard lightweight has had a tough 2016 following his brilliant win over Brendan Saunders last November. Clancy would lose in a rematch before being outpointed by New Zealand star Nort Beauchamp during the Summer.

The Sydney-based fighter is hoping to hop back on the horse this weekend with a win over Ray Thompson [1(0)-7(4)], and is upbeat that he can learn from his losses.

Clancy spoke to Irish-Boxing.com ahead of his fight at Club Punchbowl and reflected on how “it’s a cruel way to learn, but sometimes you learn a lot more after the fights you lose rather than the fights you win.”

“When you lose, straight away after you think to yourself ‘is it worth it?’ or ‘am I cut out for this?’ but then when the dust settles you realise how much you love the game and you can’t walk away from it.”

“So instead you start to say ‘what can I learn?’ ‘what can I improve on?’ and ‘what did I do wrong in that last fight?'”

“Once you get back to the gym and start fixing it and start seeing the changes it’s so rewarding.”

Not one to shirk from a challenge, Clancy takes pride in his imperfect record and, knowing he has given it his all in each and every fight. The Connemara man described how “I go into every fight expecting to win and always put in a good hard training camp so it disappoints me when I lose.”

“I don’t half do it, I give 100 percent and set my goals high.”

“All the fights I have lost have been to tough opponents.”

Sunday’s six-rounder is perhaps lower stakes than his previous few contests, but 32 year old Clancy is aiming to make a statement, and explained how “Thompson is a good tough fight, but one I’ll be looking to impress in and get a good convincing win as I would like to get out again before Christmas.”

“I think I’m on a show in December and then I would be looking to get back chasing some titles again in 2017 and be back in some big fights,” he added before revealing that he is intending to make a trip home and will be bringing his gloves.

“I would love to fight in Ireland in 2017, that’s the plan. I’ll be spending a good bit of time back home and to fight in front of all my family and friends would be a dream of mine.”

“I know no matter where I fight in Ireland I would bring a big fan base from Galway and Connemara, they love their boxing back there and the amount of messages I get from them all over here every time I fight is unreal.”