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Rusty Ginja Ninja Chris Blaney to take it steady following comeback win


Chris Blaney [11(3)-1(0)] assures the cut he suffered over his eye on Saturday night is not related to or has no affect on the eye injury that kept out of the ring just under a year.

However, it may be a little while before we see the Ginja Ninja in big domestic fights.

The Navan man had to get a operation after suffering an eye related injury during the Ireland’s Last Man Standing tournament in March of last year where he was eliminated by upcoming English title challenger Jack Cullen.

So, when he exited the ring with a big gash opened up by a clash of heads during his return, those less educated to the previous injury feared the worst.

Thankfully, the Ricky Hatton-trained fighter revealed the cut has no bearing and is not related to the cured injury.

“No, it’s not related to the injury at all, thank God but it’s the same eye. I tested the eye and it was all fine,” he told Irish-boxing.com before stressing the cut won’t slow down his 2019 plans. 

“I’ll only take a week off then straight back training hard but obviously no sparring for a few weeks.”

Blaney returned to action with a 40-38 points win over Raimonds Sniedze of Latvia and felt a genuine excitement around the fight considering his lay-off. 

However, he admits he did have the kind of ring rust he wasn’t expecting and, in that regard, he suggests some more rounds may be needed before he challenges for the Irish middleweight title.

Blaney detailed how “it felt great. It was like having my first fight again.”

The performance wasn’t great but I got the win which is the main part. I would have liked to box better but he was messy fighter

“I didn’t think there would be much rust to get off because I was sparring well before the fight but that’s totally different than fighting and in front of a crowd.”

“In saying that, I feel like it was a good fight to get the rust off,” he adds before talking about what may be next.

“I am not sure what’s next, maybe two or three more fights at six and rounds then an Irish title fight hopefully.”

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Jonny Stapleton

Irish-boxing.com contributor for 15 years and editor for the past decade. Have been covering boxing for over 16 years and writing about sports for a living for over 20 years. Former Assistant Sports editor for the Gazette News Paper Group and former Tallaght Voice Sports Editor. Have had work published in publications around the world when working as a freelance journalist. Also co-founder of Junior Sports Media and Leinster Rugby PRO of the Year winner. email: editoririshboxing@gmail.com

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