No time to Carty Party – Heavyweight goes straight into massive fight camps
The Carty Party won’t continue across the festive season with Thomas Carty returning to serious work as soon as Monday.
The Dublin heavyweight prolonged his winning start to professional boxing when he made six knockouts from seven wins on the massive CameronTaylor2 card in the 3Arena on Saturday.
That win over Dan Garber came in what will be the Celtic Warrior Gym bigman’s last fight of 2023. However, that doesn’t mean he can trade his robe for his Christmas jumper nor 12 rounds for the 12 pubs throughout December. The 27-year-old was straight back to work two days after having his hand raised, as he gets ready to play a part in some of the biggest fights in boxing over the next few months.
As the go-to southpaw spar for the biggest of big men names, Carty will rejoin team Anthony Joshua as they prepare to fight Otto Wallin in Saudi Arabia on December 23 and will also team up with Tyson Fury as he bids to become undisputed heavyweight champion when he fights Oleksandr Usyk in February.
“I’ll be back in the gym Monday. There are plenty of big heavyweight fights coming up and plenty in need of southpaw sparring,” Carty explains.
“AJ is fighting Wallin, Tyson Fury is fighting Usyk, so I’m going to be busy. My sparring partner in the gym Johnny Walker is fighting a lefty as well, so we will be all over the place, Suadi, Vegas, back in Saudi again so no rest,” he adds before commenting why he is the first port of call for southpaw sparring.
“They know what I bring and I’m really looking forward to getting straight back into the gym and working on improving from tonight.”
Carty has been in camp with the likes of Derek Chisora, his manager Dillian Whyte, WBC world champion Fury and former unified world champion Joshua previously. He admits it was strange to begin with, but he now feels at home in the surrounds of the best the world has to offer, and uses time with them for his future benefit.
“It was surreal initially but now I know how good I am in the gym and how good I can potentially be, it’s just part of the process now. It’s about ticking boxes and building more momentum for the next performance.”
The Paschal Collins trained fighter had a real learning experience down by the Dublin Docks on the DAZN broadcast show on Saturday night.
Garber came to survive and looked to spoil to ensure that happened. It led to a frustrating seven and a bit rounds for the man who stole the show last time Matchroom came to town.
“Last time I was here I had a great knockout and there was headlines for me all over the place for a week after,” he added. “This time I wanted to out do that and I was trying to force it a little. A couple of people text me beforehand saying don’t let him drag you down to his level and that’s kind of what happened. I know myself I’m levels above that performance and you’ll see next time,” he adds before pointing to some positives.
“It was all about adjusting and most importantly I did that and got the stoppage in the end.”
The Phibsoboro native has to deal with higher expectations from most pre-10 fight boxers. The spotlight he works under and the fact his profile is bigger than any fellow novice heavy brings pressure to perform. However, he welcomes that pressure, happy to do his learning under the watchful glare of many and takes a an admirable job to ensure he performs regardless.
“It’s up to me to adjust and it’s up to me took look good, so next time I’ll have to be better than that.”
Photo Credit Matchroom – Mark Robinson
