This One is Personal – A Declan Geraghty Title Win Would Mean a lot to Promoter Jay Byrne
This is more than business for Jay Byrne. It’s personal.
The JB Promotions boss brings an end to a successful first year of promoting with another Warehouse at the Red Cow hosted fight night on Friday.
Topping the Chapter 2 card is an intriguing clash between former amateur standout Declan Geraghty and former Welsh champion Jake Tinklin.
With the BUI Celtic welterweight title on the line, it’s seen by fans as a good chance for a boxer once billed as a prospect capable of filling in a Bernard Dunne-sized hole in Dublin boxing, to ensure he doesn’t retire without a major title win.
From a business and promotional standpoint it could open the pathway to an easy-to-make in-house Irish title fight between Senan Kelly and ‘Prettyboy’. However, promoter Byrne can’t quite look at it that way.
The fighter turned promoter, who won the same strap in 2017, has a long history with the 34-year-old southpaw and sees him as family.
“Deco is a personal friend since I came into boxing,” Byrne says.
“I’ve boxed him twice, we’ve sparred numerous rounds, trained in camps with him and under his dad, I’ve travelled to his fights, the lot.
“To be the one to deliver the last part of his career means a lot to me,” he adds before claiming the Friday won’t be a farewell for the self-proclaimed underachiever.
“I believe this will be the best part of his career. It be a time he can look back at with pride and he can have something to show for when he calls time. He’s like family.”
Former TV fighter Geraghty, who has shared the ring with the likes of Jono Carroll, Marco McCullough, James Tennyson and Archie Sharp across his boxing innings, is a fighter who deserves success, according to Byrne.
He is backing the stylist, who all but retired this time last year, to collect the prettiest strap in Irish boxing this weekend and believes an Irish title shot will present itself in the New Year.
“It’s a massive fight for Deco. This is the final chapter of his career and his first chance to win a domestic pro title. He could then have a chance to compete for the Irish in early 2025. For a man who was retiring last November that is quite a brilliant turnaround. In my opinion, it would be a deserving end considering the career in boxing he has had.
“He is capable of winning this fight and also capable of winning an Irish title and then who knows if he was to win that, maybe one more shot of a bigger title but let’s know look past Jake on Friday, tough fighter with a great record.”
Tinklin, who has been in Ireland before losing to Kildare’s Kelly earlier in the year, is seen as a British title-level boxer and comes to town with a new team in tow.
“It’s a huge test,” says Byrne. “He hasn’t had this in a while where he is the main event with a title on the line and up against an opponent coming to win. Tinklin has a new team and is confident of taking a huge scale. This fight should show us where Deco is and what he has left. It’s a test but I have no doubt he passes it. “
