‘Please Get Me the Jake Dodd Fight’ – Conor Quinn Begged for Rearranged Dodd Dust Up
Conor Quinn admits he was determined not to let his clash with Jake Dodd disappear after the pair’s first scheduled meeting collapsed at the eleventh hour.
The Belfast boxer was left devastated when their Commonwealth title fight was cancelled on the day of the weigh-in earlier this year after Quinn narrowly missed the flyweight limit. Although the disappointment lingered, the Ulsterman immediately made one thing clear to his team – he wanted Dodd next.
Now, after moving up to super flyweight, ‘The Magnificent’ finally gets the chance to settle matters when he faces the Liverpool fighter at the Waterfront Hall on Friday night.
The 29-year-old revealed he repeatedly urged his management to make sure the bout was resurrected.
“I said from the start, I believe it is a good fight,” Quinn explained.
“I absolutely love these sorts of fights and I’m fully confident that I’m going to win, but I’d be naive to sit here and say it’s not going to make for a great fight.
“When the last show came around I was delighted, and then with the fight falling through and tickets being handed back and stuff, you don’t know what type of fight you’re going to get next time around.
“I was begging and pleading with Jamie Conlan and Poddy McCrory like, ‘Please get me the Jake Dodd fight.'”
“If that fight doesn’t happen, if he’s going to pursue another opportunity, I can’t say too much about that because it was me who changed the weight division, but if it’s not him, get me someone like him – someone good, someone coming to win the fight.”
Quinn believes the rescheduled contest is even bigger than it was first time around.
The cancellation created plenty of debate, while the uncertainty surrounding whether the fight would ever be made again has only added intrigue heading into Friday night’s showdown.
“I think it is going to make for a great fight,” he said.
“It’s intriguing, it’s interesting.”
The Belfast man also admitted moving up to super flyweight was a necessity after struggling to make the 112lb limit.
“I needed to move up a weight. I was the one who asked for this,” he explained.
“The only downside is there’s no title on the line this time around, but these things happen and you can’t have it all your own way.”
“I wanted to move up a weight division. I’ve got that. Now it’s a great opportunity to go out and do what I know I can do and after that, bigger things will come.”
Quinn heads into Friday’s clash predicting an explosive encounter and, despite the respect between both camps, is backing himself to end matters early.
“I’m training as if I’m not going to do him inside the distance, but you have to have belief, don’t you?”
“I fully believe that I’ll win inside the distance.”
