Pierce O’Leary says that sparring with Josh Kelly has made him sharper than ever ahead of his fight against Irvin Magno on this month’s stacked MTK Fight Night event.
Unbeaten O’Leary (5-0, 2 KOs) faces Magno (5-3-1, 1 KO) as part of the huge card taking place at the University of Bolton Stadium on February 19, live in the US on ESPN+ in association with Top Rank, and worldwide on IFL TV.
Kelly has a fight of his own just 24 hours later, as he goes up against David Avanesyan, and O’Leary has lifted the lid on just how beneficial the sparring sessions have been.
O’Leary said: “Training has gone great. I’ve been in camp for a long time now, and I stayed positive and tried not letting any negative situations get in my way.
“For the last few weeks I’ve been sparring Josh Kelly, and what better preparation could I have got than that. I’ve sparred a lot in this camp and I’m sharper then ever.
“I am really pleased that the fight has been re- arranged so quick on two occasions. We have been training really hard and I have made so many tough sacrifices through camp and was very disciplined throughout Christmas.
“It’s brilliant that all of that hard work will not be going to waste, and it means I get to show everybody all of my improvements.”
Elsewhere on February 19’s #MTKFightNight, Sean McComb and Gavin Gwynne fight for the vacant Commonwealth lightweight title, Darren Tetley and Samuel Antwi clash for the vacant English welterweight title, and DP Carr defends his Southern Area super-featherweight title against Dean Dodge.