McGregor’s Opponent Opens Up On Boxing Match At Crumlin Boxing Club
Last Friday, Conor McGregor surprised us all by taking part in Crumlin Boxing Club’s annual “Good Friday Boxing Show”.
In the main event, McGregor fought Michael McGrane in an exhibition boxing contest. You can see some of the footage of the fight here. The fight at the 27th annual fund raising event was deemed a draw in the interest of ceremony after the final bell had rung.
McGregor had trained at the gym as a teenager, before moving on to MMA. The Irish man had returned to the gym the previous Wednesday for an impromptu training session, where he sparred with McGrane.
Speaking to Eurobash (as transcribed by MMA Fighting), the Irish boxing legend and two-time Olympian Phil Sutcliffe Sr., who used to coach McGregor at the Crumlin Boxing Club, spoke about how the fight came about.
“It was a last-minute thing. Conor came in for a bit of sparring and we were delighted. I told him he never needed an invitation to come back to his home gym and we were delighted that he came. He did some pads with our own Patrick Brady, and also two of our other coaches, Brian Geraghty and Tommy Martin.
“He knows how famous [the Good Friday events] are, they’re famous all over the world. We’ve had people from all over the world box on our Good Friday shows, some of the biggest names in Irish boxing have boxed on these shows.
“Conor said he’d love to box on the Good Friday show. He boxed on the Good Friday show in 2004 and he said he’d like to go again. I said, ‘No problem, but we have to get a proper match for you,’ you know, someone that’s around his own weight and someone around his own class.”
Sutcliffe was full of praise for the boxing skills of the former UFC two division champion.
“He showed supreme class in sparring Micheal McGrane, who was an Irish champion. It was a great spar, the two of them went hell for leather at each other. Conor decked him with a body shot in the third round, which was fantastic. Micheal got back up and he went at Conor straight away. He’s a warrior, he went back at Conor and he caught him with some beautiful shots. Conor danced away from him, but it was a very good exhibition of boxing.
“There was a bit of showboating. I can’t go without saying it, but Conor is a showboater. There was a bit of showboating and there was some spectacular head movement from Conor. It was a great attempt by Micheal, he wasn’t holding back for one instant. It was cracking bout, the two of them went hell for leather as I said, but Conor was just that little bit more skillfull than Micheal with the body shot.
“He looks fit and ready to go, but you still don’t know what he’s thinking or what his plans are for fighting again, you really don’t know. It’s hard to know what he’s thinking. He’s a multi-millionaire, he could have anything going through his head, you wouldn’t know. He’s in fighting condition anyway, that’s a definite.”
McGregor’s opponent on the night was also complimentary of the UFC fighter’s skills in the ring. As McGrane also told Eurobash.
“He’s a 10-out-of-10 showman. As a striker, his power is 10-out-of-10 as well. He landed [punches] with accuracy and precision. You can see that in his UFC fights, he always stops people with his [punches]. But they didn’t stop me. I’m not American, I’m Irish, so I think he knew he was in for a fight after I sparred him on the Wednesday!
“He caught me with a body shot and he took every last gasp of wind out of me. I didn’t think I was going to comeback from it to be honest, but when you’re looking at the crowd and you’re looking at the corner…you have to get your breath back. I got my wind back before the ten count, so I knew I was ready to rock again.”
He may have been all compliments speaking to Eurobash but when McGrane spoke to TMZ Sports, he had a little dig at McGregor for throwing a cheap shot in their bout.
“We touch gloves at the start of the fight and you’re meant to go back to your corner but Conor never went back to his corner, Conor leaped at me with a left hook, his clinical left hooks, and he caught me flush on the eye.”
“It was a cheap shot, yeah. It was the cheapest shot I’ve ever caught in my life.”
You can see the ‘cheap shot’ here:
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