Thick-skinned Lynn Harvey ready for long-awaited second date

Lynn Harvey [1(1)-0] debuted with a bang last November.

The Kilbarrack flyweight took less than a minute to flatten Bulgarian Ivana Yaneva at the Red Cow Moran Hotel last year in front of her delirious fans.

However, Harvey has been unable to build on the win, seeing a lack of fight dates which has left her with still just 59 seconds of professional ring action under her belt.

The 35 year old explained to Irish-Boxing.com that “it [a quick KO win] wasn’t frustrating at the time because I think I was just relieved that it was over and I did well, but then going back and thinking I saw that I didn’t learn much and I didn’t get to show what I can do.”

“And certainly the stretch of time after that where I wasn’t fighting, people were still talking about the fight last November and how it was less than a minute, so it was even more minuscule then as time went on.”

“If I had of had a fight soon after that I would have been fine, but because that was my only experience, it stated to get more minuscule cos I had nothing else to follow it up.”

While the long gap has being frustrating, Harvey stressed that “I never thought of quitting.”

“People kept telling me ‘Lynn, don’t quit.’ A couple of the boxers here [Celtic Warrior Gym] were keeping my morale up. Jono [Carroll] was saying to me that, after he had his debut, he had a year out, and Stephen [Ormond] was saying that he was here for over a year without a fight one time a couple of years ago.”

“Even though I wasn’t giving up, they were probably thinking that I was thinking about it because there wasn’t many shows being put on and the couple that were on, my name was being put forward but wasn’t being selected.”

Indeed Harvey believes that a tough, fight-free year, has strengthened her character ahead of her second professional fight against Mary Romero on November 5th at the National Stadium. Outlining her development over the past twelve months, ‘The Hunter’ described how “for the first few months after my fighter I took it personal, I was struggling a little bit, feeling a little bit rejected. I proved that i can fight and I proved that I can sell tickets so I was kind of like ‘why am I not getting picked?'”

“I don’t know what happened but then earlier on the year, but I toughened up, owned it a bit more, and I’m after getting a lot more thick skinned. I just said to myself, ‘y’know what Lynn, you’re just going to have to make it happen,’ and since then I’ve been organising all my own publicity, and making things happen.”

“If somebody didn’t want to do something with me I’d think ‘so what, the next person will,’ just taking it with a pinch of salt.”

“What I was doing before was that I was putting myself too much in it, so that if somebody knocked me out I’d be devastated, whereas I’m after finding that balance where I’m still hungry, I’m still putting myself out there and making sure that everyone knows I still want it, but at the same time that I’m keeping the balance and I’m happy in my own life and my mind is clear and if someone says something bad it’s not a devastating knock.”

“I’m just so much more clear-minded now.”

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)