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Kevin Cronin keen to continue climbing following impressive London outing


In boxing it is always a good sign when a boxer leaves the ring to louder cheers than those he entered to and that’s exactly what happened to Kevin Cronin [2(1)-0] last Saturday night in London.

The Kerry light heavyweight scored his second professional win at the famous York Hall in Bethnal Green and suitably impressed the knowledgeable English crowd in attendance.

Cronin dominated Latvian trickster Jevgenijs Andrejevs over four rounds, dropping his experienced and durable opponent in the third round, eventually claiming a 40-35 points win. The patient and powerful performance stood out amongst a marathon of boxing as the Milltown 22-year-old once again marked himself out as one to watch following his explosive knockout debut back in March

‘The Kingdom Warrior’ was happy with his night’s work and noted how “I came over here wanting to impress and I think I got a lot of fans there. I think I won over the English crowd and I think they’ll want to see me again, hopefully, and hopefully I’ll be over again.”

While it had been less than three months since his debut in Dublin, which was shown live online by TG4, Cronin showed improvements in London and is going from strength to strength with his Dublin coach Jonathan Lewins.

Many fighters are drawn in to ugly fights by Andrejevs, a veteran of over 100 pro bouts who knows all about surviving the distance and making prospects look poor. Cronin, though, was methodical and relentless, giving the Baltic boxer one of his toughest nights in recent times – and performed notably better Love Island star Tommy Fury who faced the same foe last year.

“There’s nothing more I could have done there,” Cronin reflected. “I think I did a lot better than my debut, I let off an awful lot of punches, I didn’t rush anything. Me and Jonathan are working really well now, I think we’re coming along perfectly and I’m really looking forward to the next one. We’re not rushing, I just want to get everything right.”

“I was happy to get the four rounds, very happy. It was a tough four rounds but it’s what I wanted coming over here, I didn’t want to come all the way to London for an easy walkover.”

“It was a good experience and I got the win. He was a tough opponent, he wasn’t going to be easy taking out of there but I knew that coming in. I put him down in the third but I wasn’t going to rush it because I knew he would be trying to draw me in so I just stuck to my boxing.”

The mature Cashen Vale BC graduate wants to be built gradually as he adapts to the big, bad pro world and already can’t wait to keep developing. Cronin is aiming to fight at least once more in 2019 and outlined how “we’ll hopefully get one [fight], anyway, and if a second one comes along, all the better.”

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Joe O'Neill

Reporting on Irish boxing the past five years. Work has appeared on irish-boxing.com, Boxing News, the42.ie, and local and national media. Provide live ringside updates, occasional interviews, and special features on the future of Irish boxing. email: joneill6@tcd.ie

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