Title heaven in devilish heat for Magee

August 3 Jonny Stapleton

Brian Magee battled through the devils cauldron to reach title heaven in Costa Rica last Saturday night.

The 36 year old fighter celebrated his finest hour and prevented Jamie Barboza from becoming the first ever Costa Rican World champion by claiming the WBA Interim title at El Indio’s expense last Saturday.

And speaking to www.irish-boxing.com just minutes after he got of the plane in Dublin Airport hailed his 35th win as one of the greatest in his distinguished 40 fight career.

The Belfast fighter may have defeated a superior class of opponent previously but the whole Costa Rican ‘adventure’ made Barboza one of his toughest opponents to date.

“It is amazing. It hasn’t really sunk in as of yet. It is up there with my best performances because it was such an event. We had to travel all the way out there and spend a few weeks acclimatizing. It was tough in the first week it was like the devils cauldron it was that hot. It was a big adventure,” Magee said.

“The week in Panama really stood to me and proved essential.We have come from winning the European title in minus 14 in Denmark to winning the Interim world title in sweltering heat in Costa Rica.”

Magee was favoured going into the title bout and many predicted he would stop the former light middle and middleweight operator in the later rounds.

In fact the Lisburn man himself was keen on making the judges redundant and admitted his desire to end things early hampered his performance.

“When you win a World title you want to do it in spectacular fashion, but things don’t always go to plan. He was tough, tougher than I thought. I was so eager I loaded up on a few punches. Bernardo got me back in the corner and got me back to boxing and it turned out well. I knew I was in control and I should have been ahead. I wasn’t too worried but I would have preferred if it didn’t go to points and I got the stoppage.”

The victory leaves the Interim champion in major demand and he is confident more big fights are just around the corner.

“We are in pole position in terms of big fights now. There are lot of big fights and big names in this division. Having this belt puts me in the positions everyone else wants to be in,” Ireland’s latest champion concluded.