A welcome change for Eamonn

Published on 26/01/2013 08:07

Eamonn O’Kane insists his sole professional career loss against John Ryder last month was ‘the kick up the backside’ he needed as he prepares for his first fight of 2013 against Gary Boulden in Betfair’s ‘Unfinished Business’ at the Odyssey Arena in Belfast on February 9th.

O’Kane met Ryder before Christmas in London and the Islington man came out on top, stopping the Dungiven fighter in the eighth round of their exciting middleweight clash.

The 30 year-old Irish Prizefighter champion is aiming to bounce back in Belfast and says that he will show he’s been working hard on new things in the gym ahead of a big year.

“This fight is definitely very important to get myself back into the rankings and back into the mix to do what I want to do,” said O’Kane. “It is very important to get the win. There are a lot of things I am working on and a lot of things I am hopefully going to put in place; you aren’t going to see a dramatic improvement but you are going to see improvements. It is a work in progress and that is what I want to see in my performance.

“It was disappointing but I believe good things have come out of it. I say it has been a good kick in the backside for me. There were a lot of things in the preparation for that fight and that were my own fault.”

“I had been getting some criticism on the TV from Prizefighter but we sort of ignored it because the game plan was to go out and work hard and put my opponent under as much pressure as possible.

“So I didn’t really concentrate on the technical side of the boxing,” said O’Kane.

“We have listened to the critics and we are trying to answer the questions by improving. I know I can box, I have boxed in the amateurs, in the World Series of Boxing, and at times we have been boxing very well but at times I have been careless so I decided to make a change,” he concluded..

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A welcome change for Eamonn

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