Relentless Jono Carroll ‘really close’ to second world title shot

Jono Carroll [20(5)-2(0)-1] believes he is within touching distance of another world title shot and will stay busy in Dubai next month while he waits for the path to a second tilt to clear up.

‘King Kong’ moved into WBA world title pole position with victory over American Andy Vences in Hollywood, Miami earlier this year.

The Dubliner, who challenged Tevin Farmer for the IBF super featherweight world title in March of 2019, is now just awaiting the winner of champion Roger Gutiérrez’s defense against Chris Colbert.

That world title fight has been pushed back to January so rather than rest on his laurels the Spain based fighter decided to take a Dubal December fight.

Carroll suggests an eight rounder at the Coca-Cola Arena will be his last before another tilt.

‘I’m really close to that shot,” Carroll explains.

“What happened there was, the champion and number one were meant to be fighting in December, that was big part of the reason why my team got me out in December. But now it looks like they been pushed back to January, so to be honest I’m just gonna stay busy,” he adds.

“I’ve to focus on the job I have now and just keep winning and when the champion is ready I’ll jump straight in there with him. It’s more or less when he’s gonna be ready not when I’m gonna be ready.”

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Carroll is effectively keeping busy on the Probellum card but isn’t expecting your standard keep busy opponent. The spotlight-loving bearded warrior is expecting a challenge on the Middle Eastern fight night. ​

“I’m expecting a good hard fight in Dubai,” he continued.

“I’m at a level now where I can’t take too many easy fights, so I’m expecting a good level. I think I’m just gonna’ do eight rounds to stay shape because it’s not gonna’ be a TV slot. The TV slots were already taken up before I got on the show. It was kinda last minute thing jumping on the show but regardless I’m happy to be out to be kept busy. I’m delighted to be out before Christmas.”

The ever-entertaining southpaw is currently in Las Vegas helping Devon Haney prepare for his clash with Jo Jo Diaz. The 29-year-old reveals his relentless approach was seen as ideal work for Diaz.

“Devon Haney’s team got in contact with me to come out and spar because they’re fighting Jojo Diaz.I fight with a similar style, they wanted me to press that action and be on him. Jojo said he’s going to dog him, so they wanted somebody who was relentless and rang me.

“It’s great to be here I’m learning a lot and it’s brilliant. It’s nice to see how they all train and the detail they go into. They do a lot of things different than we do. Devon’s a world champion so it’s nice to pick his brain and ask his team different things about his strength and conditioning. It’s just good to be around.”