Sport

Barry McGuigan: 'We're ready to let Conrad Cummings loose in the middleweight division'

The World Is Not Enough IBF Super-Bantamweight World Title Fight Undercard, Odyssey Arena, Belfast 28/2/2015 Middleweight Bout Conrad Cummings celebrates winning Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Presseye/William Cherry

COALISLAND slugger Conrad Cummings gets a shot at the vacant IBF Inter-Continental middleweight title tonight and manager Barry McGuigan is excited to see his charge step up another level.

The unbeaten 25-year-old takes on experienced German Ronny Mittag, who has 31 fights under his belt compared to Cummings’ 11, at Wembley Arena, live on Spike TV.

After impressing in front of an American audience with a unanimous decision win over Dante Moore on the undercard of Carl Frampton's defeat of Leo Santa Cruz in July, Cummings is all set for his first 12-round fight.

McGuigan, whose company Cyclone Promotions represent Cummings, believes his fighter is ready to start taking on the best middleweights in Britain and Europe and can’t wait to see the kid they call ‘Dynamite’ display his explosive power against Mittag.

“It’s a very tough fight,” McGuigan told The Irish Post. “He’s far more experienced than Conrad but we’re ready to let him loose on the best middleweights in the UK and then Europe.

“Conrad is a really good prospect, unbeaten as a pro and has a pretty high knockout record. He’s a very exciting kid and has won several Irish titles.

“It’s a big ask, but I really believe he can pull it out of the bag.”

Wembley weigh-in. @ChampCummings on point, opponent Ronny Mittag slightly over, has 2 hrs to make weight #Boxing pic.twitter.com/M5T90Far7J

— Irish Post Sport (@IrishPostSport) November 17, 2016

Co. Tyrone native Cummings is trained by McGuigan’s son Shane, who has had a stellar year in cementing himself as one of the most respected cornermen in the game, and the two have been in their London camp for this fight for the past 10 weeks.

Former WBA featherweight champion McGuigan believes Cummings failed to get the recognition he deserved in the amateur ranks, but believes now is his time to shine as he prepares to pit him against the best domestic fighters in a strong division.

“He’s one of these guys who went a bit under the radar in the amateur game, but he pushed (highly regarded Donegal prospect) Jason Quigley to a split decision in his last senior final.
“Conrad is in line to fight the likes of John Ryder, and the Tommy Langfords of this world, so he’s right in the mix now.”

But first, he must deal with what’s in front of him, and Cummings’ natural strength, power and solid jab could see him overwhelm Mittag, while a win will put him closer to the IBF’s top 15 middleweights.

Meanwhile, Cyclone Promotions have signed a new television deal with Channel 5, which will broadcast the main event on Friday, November 18, with George Groves v Eduard Gutknecht the headline bout.

Barry McGuigan [Picture: Getty]

Much of the undercard will be broadcast live on Spike TV, the Freeview channel which is owned by Channel 5, before Channel 5 begin their live broadcast at 10pm.

McGuigan has long been an advocate of bringing top quality boxing back to terrestrial TV and hopes his company’s new agreement can help make the sport appealing to casual sports fans again.
“The reality is, to build stars we have to get them back on to terrestrial television where casual fans can see them as well as the die-hards,” he said.

“You’ve got to hand it to Channel 5, they’re spending money and investing it in talent and we are 100 per cent confident that we’ll deliver the numbers for them.

“Around 200,000 boxing fans will watch it on Sky Sports or Box Nation every Saturday night, whenever it’s on, but the reason I got 20 million people watching me fight for the world title against Eusebio Pedroza in 1985 was because it was an era where families sat down together and watched four channels.

“For whatever reason, people happened to like me, and I became a household name because of that. I don’t think we’ll ever get those figures again because we’ve now got 500 channels, three televisions in the house and different members of the family are watching different things.

“It’s a different era, but it doesn’t mean that we can’t get big numbers. For example, Tyson Fury got just shy of three million when he boxed on Channel 5.

“And the last fight Channel 5 showed – the unfortunate fight between Nick Blackwell and Chris Eubank Jr – got around two-and-a-half million.

“I just think the narratives of terrestrial television are much underplayed. It’s hugely important for casual sports fans to watch boxing and I do believe that it can be successful on terrestrial TV once again.”