Owen O’Neill’s attempts at speaking Irish have gone so badly that he plans to let his fists do the talking this weekend.
One of the true personalities of Irish boxing, O’Neill makes his television debut when he trades leather at the Europa Hotel on the undercard of Eric Donovan and Khalil El Hadri’s vacant EBU EU Super Featherweight title bout.
The entire card, including the Operator’s six-round bout, will air on Irish-language station TG4. Considering that TG4’s last two pro fight night telecasts drew over 500,000 viewers combined, it suggests that this is a great opportunity for ‘Triple O’ to grow his famed fan base.
However, he admits that he won’t be able to use the focal couplet to appeal to the Irish-language station’s audience, so he’ll have to impress them with his performance.
“I’ve tried here and there, but it hasn’t worked out well for me,” he smiles when asked about going as Gaeilge. “I don’t want to make an ejit of myself!”
O’Neill insists he won’t make fun of himself in the ring, claiming he’s gone to great lengths to make sure he looks good for the cameras.
“I am very happy to fight on television. This has been the best camp I have ever done. It has also been the strictest to date. I’ve been flat out, so I’m looking to put on a great performance.”
The Belfast fighter was due to fight fellow redhead Martin Quinn on the undercard, only the fight was not sanctioned.
The Mark Dunlop-managed boxer, trained by Dee Walsh, admits he was “gutted” by being denied the opportunity to appear in all the Irish action on terrestrial television and it’s a fight he may revisit.
O’Neill still faces quite a test on a card that includes Tommy McCarthy, Conor Quinn and an interesting Clash of Cavan between Dominic Dongan and Owen Duffy.
Former Scottish Champion Marek Laskowski [9(1)-14(2)-2] arrives in Belfast looking to surprise.
“This is still an escalated fight for me. Mark told me it was a Scottish camp. I am really looking forward to it as I have trained really hard and I am ready to start”, he adds before predicting “a solid victory and a great performance”.
