No regrets for Sean McGlinchey following short-notice defeat to Pádraig McCrory
Sean McGlinchey [2(0)-1(0)] admits it wasn’t ideal but is adamant he has no regrets about his last-minute decision to take on Padraig McCrory last Friday night.
With the Derry and Belfast fighters’ ‘Danger at the Docks’ bouts both falling through late on Friday, the prospects surprisingly agreed to trade leather against each other the following night.
It was a brave move from both and a risk that possibly favoured McCrory considering McGlinchey was out of the ring for 16 months and the smaller man in the away corner.
Regardless, McCrory put in an eye-catching performance, dropping his former amateur rival in the final stanza and coming away with a four round points win that should kick him on to bigger things.
The risk didn’t pay off for Creggan’s McGlinchey and the Commonwealth Games bronze medalist believes it’s a chance he had to take.
McGlinchy claims he didn’t want to let fans that had bought tickets for the fight night down while showing promoters he has self belief regardless of the situation.
“I took the fight last minute knowing the risk I was taking but I couldn’t let my fans down with cancelling another fight also to show MTK and other promoters groups that I am serious about the game and want to get to the top,” Mummy’s Bhoy told Irish-Boxing.com.
“I think it shows my ambition. Like we are in the fighting game so don’t see why we should hide from fights. I want to move forward quickly and smartly. If I feel the fight make sense and will put me out there then I will take it,” he added before admitting a warm up fight would have been beneficial.
“Of course, after 18 months out of the ring I should have took a warm up fight but I have no regrets from taking the fight on Friday night.”
While there was a general air of excitement surrounding the fight, there was a strange tinge of disappointment when it was announced.
The late notice element denied fans of what would have been an interesting build-up and probably a better fight – not to mention that it prevented the fighters with an interesting shared history from getting the kind of media attention they deserved.
Furthermore, some suggested it was a bout worthy of a title further down the line and one that could have produced fireworks and a legendary night if there had been more rounds.
With that in mind, a rematch will never be scoffed at by fight fans but McGlinchey claims it’s not on his immediate radar as he is determined to campaign at middle rather than super middle moving forward.
“I am sure the fight can happen again but I will be going to middleweight so I can’t see it happening in the near future, maybe when titles involved, we will see what happens.”
While the result didn’t go his way, the Derry puncher wasn’t too down beat when speaking to Irish-Boxing.com. After a horrible year with illness, injury, and licence issues he was just delighted to be punching again.
“It felt amazing to get back in the ring. From warming up, the ring walk and the buzz about the place from the fans was amazing,” he added before reflecting on the fight itself.
“I thought it was a good hard fight when I watched it back. I have loads of things to work on and get right but when working with a solid coach I will get these things right. Overall I did okay in there under the circumstances.”
McGlinchey is now keen to get busy and make up for some lost time. He will look for a full-time coach and drop to middleweight.
“The plan now is to keep the ball rolling get out at lower weight ASAP, get myself a full-time coach, and get away for training camps if anyone interested taking me on.”