TIERNAN Bradley has been a professional for almost three years’ now. He has fought in Spain, Belgium, on both sides of the border and in England and, on Friday night, he’ll have the ninth fight of his career at the Brighton Centre in Sussex.
Who has pushed him hardest so far?
“Nobody,” he says.
“Nobody has pushed me yet.
“I went the distance once, in Spain. He was a decent fighter but I didn’t really trust my fitness and I was only getting going in the pro game, I’d only been in it for four months at that stage.
“That was my second six-rounder so I was only starting out and I didn’t know if I could last six rounds. But then, at the end of the fifth, I was talking to myself in the corner going: ‘What are you doing here? You’re easing through this fight and you haven’t got out of first gear…’ I pumped it up a bit in the sixth round and I nearly had him away and then the bell went early. That’s why it went the distance.
“It wasn’t a hard fight at all and nobody has really pushed me yet.”
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Fighting on undercards is one way to get experience, the other is to get top quality sparring and he travelled to Los Angeles in April for just that. His sparring partners on that trip included Conor Benn and he worked with Mark Chamberlain (European lightweight champion) in his training camp for this weekend’s action.
“I have been in with a lot of top guys in my amateur career and as a professional and I’m putting the foundations in place to kick on to the next level,” he said.
“All I want is a platform to display what I can do. Fair play to Gerard Hughes and Ruadhan Farrell fighting on the Conlan Boxing card in Belfast in December, it must be a dream come true for them and that’s what I want. I look at Kieran Molloy and Paddy Donovan – they have just shot up – and I want to get on that platform and get my name out there and show my skills to the public.
“Irish boxers are attractive to viewers because we’ve got big hearts and we can fight so hopefully I get offered a big fight soon.”
Bradley is in against Poland’s Michal Bulik in Brighton. Bulik has a 6-4 record and took on Campbell Hatton in Manchester in May. Hatton stopped him late in the fifth and Bradley will mean to do the same, only earlier.
None of Bradley’s last four opponents have last to the end of the second round and the 26-year-old isn’t intending to hang about on Friday night.
“I want the same again – a first or second round knockout,” he said.
“I’ll go in there and do my job. I don’t look for the knockout but it will come - as soon as I let my hands go it will arrive.
“My next fight will be an eight-rounder, I’m ready for that now – I’m ready for titles. I’m living in Brighton and I’m over here to train and fight and I want to be as busy as possible.”
“I just want to fight somebody who wants to come and win. Some journeymen just want to cover up and try to steal points off you whenever they can. They can be very negative. So I like people who open up so I can do my job properly and show off my skills to the best.”
TOMMY McCarthy fell short in his bid to regain the European cruiserweight title in Poland on Saturday night.
McCarthy was stopped early in the seventh by Michal Cieslak but until then the Belfast man was well in the fight. He was caught in no man’s land when Cieslak slipped out of range of a right hand and then the Pole closed the distance quickly and landed a stinging left hook to his ribcage with just over a minute to go in the sixth.
Another left hook early in the seventh clearly hurt McCarthy and Cieslak pinned him into the corner with a brutal barrage. McCarthy went down and, although he was back on his feet after a count of eight and fought on, the towel came in from his corner as Cieslak went in for the kill.
Now 20-5, 33 year-old McCarthy will take time to weigh up his options before he decides on his next move.
CONOR McGregor will be back in action early next year, predicts his former sparring partner Tiernan Bradley.
Omagh native Bradley was part of the training camp when ‘The Notorious’ prepared for his one and only boxing match against pound-for-pound king Floyd Mayweather back in 2017. McGregor hasn’t fought competitively since his trilogy fight against Dustin Poirier over two years ago. There was speculation that he would be back in the Octagon in December but Bradley – who travelled to Denver to watch the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC41) with the Dubliner earlier this year - says next spring is the target.
“You’ll see him back fighting in March or April,” he said.
“They were hoping for December but I don’t think that will happen. He has been training for quite a while and it will be good to see him back – the return of the legend.”
Two years’ out is a long time in contact sports. McGregor still has the brash smack talk and bravado and Bradley says the skills are still there too.
“I’ve seen him sparring and he’s still got it,” he said.
“It’s a matter of what weight he fights at. It could be 155lb, or 170, or 185… You never know with Conor but you can never rule him out and you can never have any doubts about him because he’s proved us all wrong before.
“It would be great to see him come back and get in the zone again.”
