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‘I love blood’ – throwback Eddie Treacy reveals cut inspired powerful performance

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If Luke Keeler is the fighter your Mammy would love and ‘Pretty Boy’ Declan Geraghty is the fighter your younger sister might have a thing for -then Eddie Tracey [4(2)-0] is the fighter for your Da’.

The Bray man is the ultimate throwback. A no frills, plenty of thrills, fight anyone-anywhere-anytime puncher who admits he loves the taste of blood. ‘Back in my day’ is a phrase that just can’t be uttered by the older more grizzled fight fan when ‘The Honey Badger’ is in the ring.

The light middleweight’s fight on the Celtic Clash card last Saturday summed him up perfectly. What was meant to be a four round workout, 12 minutes to practice what had been worked on in the gym against an opponent that it’s not worth your while trying to stop turned into one of the more entertaining fights of an action-packed weekend.

Speaking after the Boxing Ireland fighter revealed he had every intention of taking things relatively easy, but his desire to have a fight began to take over when first he tasted the blood from a cut lip and would consume him when Victor Edagha [2(1)-65(3)-3]landed a long looping shot and smiled.

“I said to Mark [Buckley, coach] at the start I wanted to get four rounds in and work on what we have been working on in the gym. I know it was a bit mad in there and it didn’t look like we were working on much, but I was trying that short little step back and letting the shot go, plus trying to cut the ring off a bit better. Mark gave it to me after the first round, but he was tricky,” Treacy told Irish-Boxing.com.

“It might sound a bit mad and people say boxing is about hit and not getting hit, but see when I got cut and I felt the blood come into my mouth I honestly said ‘yes, here we go now’. Then he caught me with a shot and he smirked – and I said ‘come on then’, I love that. I wasn’t working on anything after that I was just enjoying the fight.”

Such a desire for action may sound like a recipe for disaster, but it just works for the St Teresa’s graduate. Indeed, the Wicklow man, who would almost be insulted to be labelled a skillful fighter, has forged a reputation as one of the domestic light middles to watch out for of late – and that bullish approach is one of the main reasons why.

Having violently stopped Cavan 154lbs operator Owen Duffy last time out the more aggressive Treacy came within seconds of becoming just the third of 70 fighters to stop the Italian-born London-based away fighter.

The Mark Buckley trained fighter dropped Edagha in the fourth with flurry before sending him heavily to the canvas with a left hook with just seconds to go. The game away fighter did get to his feet, but was ripe for the taking and was only saved by the bell.

Indeed, such was the power he felt, the experienced operator came looking for Treacy’s gloves post fight checking to see they were the correct weight and had not been tampered with.

“The last one was a heavy shot and the bell went straight away. He has only been stopped a few times in 69 fights. I was thinking it would be a nice statement to stop him, but against a lad like that you can’t look for it and I don’t mind the four rounds.”

“I am not making excuses, but I haven’t been well this week and I felt worse than ever this morning, but we got the job done against a tricky fighter. Did you see the bombs he was throwing? He catches you with one of them and your done. He caught me one on the back of the head and I felt it. I said I’ll keep it tight, get in close on his chest if I have to, but then it kind of turned into a scrap, but I think everyone enjoyed it. I did anyway.”

dpg

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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