Owen O’Neill [9-0] says he has no problem rescheduling the ‘battle of the redheads’.
‘The Operator’ was initially scheduled to fight Martin Quinn [3(1)-2(0)] in what became a much-anticipated clash between Belfast and Dublin scheduled for last Saturday’s MHD-promoted TG4 fight night.
However, the fight was not sanctioned by the board and O’Neill fought former Scottish champion Marek Laskowski in a six-round welterweight bout on terrestrial television. The fight still entertained and ‘Triple O’ closed in on a double-digit victory with another progressive performance.
Still, the undefeated Dee Walsh trained, O’Neill remains a keen Irishman and more than open to fighting Quinn in the future. In fact, the MHD fighter believes that a title could be on the line if it were done again.
“I think we could fix it again and maybe put the Celtic title on the line this time,” O’Neill told Irish-boxing.com.
“We all know it’s going to be an amazing fight, he thinks he’s going to win and I think I’m going to win. It’s a great fight, a crack for television and the fans.”
It is understood that the BUI wanted Quinn to get a win before moving to the domestic level and were concerned that he had only fought once in the last 16 months, not to mention that the fight was a loss.
Irish-boxing.com hears that the Dubliner, who was very confident of beating O’Neill, could get that fight and win on November 19 in Dublin, and then the way would be clear for the fan-friendly fight.
‘Triple O’, who showed more improvement and flirted with stopping the former Scottish champion at the weekend, admits he was upset the fight fell through.
“I was absolutely devastated when I heard it was off, especially after what happened to me with the [Jordan] Latimer fight. He was thinking that there was no way another big fight like this would fail, but he did. It was completely out of my hands and out of Marty’s hands, we both wanted to fight each other, but the board didn’t approve it for some crazy reason.”
MHD stablemate Owen Duffy, who won the Battle of Cavan, stopping Dominic Donegan on the same card, has been mentioned as a potential future foe, but he’s been a game changer for ‘The Operator’ in recent months. and is working his way down. weight classes.
A matchup with Quinn would fit perfectly on the Nov. 26 Colm Murphy vs. Liam Gaynor Europa Hotel undercard. However, that could prove to be too soon for Quinn in particular, meaning Mark Dunlop may consider him one of the first on the 2023 bill.
Photo credit Belfast Boxers
