Paul ‘Fear of God’ O’Connell lends Macklin his support

By Jonny Stapleton in New York

Considering he is faced with a chance to become the greatest middleweight on the planet by claiming victory over Sergio Martinez on St Patrick’s Day in Madison Square Garden, the Mecca of boxing, you might be surprised to hear Matthew Macklin called in the services of a motivational speaker this morning!

A world title and a place in the pound for pound top 10 should be incentive enough for the Roscommon and Tipperary fighter and indeed it is. If you seen Macklin this week he looks focused, confident, relaxed and ready to take the world storm but he certainly won’t turn down any little bit of help he can get. And when you hear Paul O’Connell proved Macklin’s personal Mr Motivator you can forgive the pep talk.

‘Mack The Knife’ was supported by Lar Corbett, Alan Quinlan, Amir Khan, Patrick Hyland and the like at yesterdays weigh in, but got more than a little support from   Mr ‘Fear of God’ himself.

The Irish rugby captain, who has had a number of not so friendly dust ups with Argentineans in his time,  put in a call to the former Tipperary underage hurler today to wish him the best of luck and offer his advice on the mental aspect of achieving greatness.

www.irish-boxing.com can just hear it now “Matthew did you put the fear of god into anyone today?”