Photograph: Irish-boxing.com
Lightweight prospect Declan Geraghty will be looking for victory number three when he boxes rugged survivor Youssef Al Hamidi in Birmingham on July 12. Shortly after registering his second win, a rapid-fire dismissal of Renato Toth on June 14 in Belfast, we caught up with Declan to discuss his career so far.
Congratulations on your knockout of Renato Toth. How happy are you with the win?
“I’m happy with the win but it was a bit fast. I knew as soon as he went down from the shot to the body that he wasn’t going to get back up. I was hoping he would get up because I’d brought up about 70 fans and another 70 or so for Fitzy as well but I’m out in Dublin next month on the Stephen Ormond bill and I want to get a big crowd for that [that show was since postponed with Ormond now appearing on the Frampton-Martinez undercard in early September].”
How do you rate your amateur career and what you’ve done so far as a professional?
“As an amateur I won everything in Ireland but I underachieved in my opinion. I was ranked top ten in the world at one stage but I didn’t get my world or European medal after getting to the last eight in both of them. I thought I should’ve got the big medal but I’m happy with the changeover I’m a bit below lightweight, I’m only really a super-feather. Everyone knows me as a boxer, very slick and classy but I’m starting to bang as a pro now. In my last fight, against Sid Razak, he doesn’t get stopped often and he kept backing away so I wasn’t happy with my performance I that one. You’ll see more from me as a banger in the future than just a boxer.”
What’s it like training out in Marbella at the MGM gym under the watchful eye of Seamus Macklin?
“Shea is bringing me on leaps and bounds. I’m not only going over for camps but I live over there and the sparring is great. I’ve been sparring Tommy Coyle, Bradley Saunders, Kofi Yates and Derry Mathews will be over there. These boys will bring me on and it’s all about keeping busy. Tom Stalker and I are best mates out of the ring but in the ring we have wars against each other, there’s no holding back.”
How fast are you looking to move your career on?
“These guys are journeymen and I’d like to move on pretty fast but that’s not my call. I think that we can bring boxing back to Dublin, back to the day of Bernard Dunne. Not only me but there’s a lot of other good boys like Luke Keeler, Sean Turner and Stephen Ormond. We’re not looking at just domestic level or even European level we’re looking eventually at world level but it all takes time. I’m not going to say I’ll be a world champion in two or three years, I’m not looking to jump too far ahead.”
What type of advice do you get from Matthew Macklin?
“Matthew’s a lovely fella who’s giving my advice all of the time. My manager Daniel is giving me good advice and my trainer Shea is young but he knows his boxing. I’ve got a great team and I want to thank everyone from behind the scenes in the gym who have helped me out. I’ll be signed up soon with a promoter but we’re not worrying about that at the moment.”
Check out Declan’s video through Irish-boxing.com below: