The past fortnight or so has been a somewhat of a tea cup ride for everyone involved with Gallagher’s Gym, Matthew Macklin’s valiant attempt in Germany stunned the locals in his controversial loss to Felix Sturm, Anthony Crolla made light work of Herve De Luca with a first round TKO win in Wigan, Joe Murray picked up his first professional title also in Wigan with an unanimous decision win over James Ancliffe.
Joe Gallagher was on the verge of 50 straight wins as a trainer, this wasn’t to be and how did Joe deal with this? By landing a world class fight for Anthony Crolla on the biggest stage of them all, ‘Money’ Mayweather and ‘Million Dollar’ Crolla on the same bill in Vegas September 17th.
Anthony Crolla takes on veteran hard man Erik Morales, here’s what Joe had to say on the fight;
Joe: the negotiations are still ongoing but we hope to get the fight signed soon, the press releases and interest in the fight have been huge. I’m fully aware the Morales fight is a high risk fight for Anthony but he wants to prove what he is made of and it’s these sorts of fights you can’t turn away from. Anthony certainly is not going into the fight to make up numbers; he is one of if not the most improved British boxers over the last 12 months.
“I think Anthony has the tools to pull this off, the interest from his fans has been incredible with people getting in touch over flight details to make the trip over to America to see him. Everybody loves watching Floyd Mayweather as it is and it’s great for Ant to be apart of it and get the coverage he deserves in America.”
“Anthony has fought some top fighters all with winning records but has never received the coverage he deserves. His last fight he landed some amazing body shots that stopped a good fighter inside a round but still no credit”
I asked Joe Gallagher of is opinions on how it seems you can not fight a good fight these days without the quality of opponent being questioned, he replied “you can only beat the man in front of you, whether it lasts one round or 12 you just have to prepare for that fight, Crolla opponents have all had plenty of wins on their records”
“We really wanted the Gavin Rees fight but he chose to take up Derry Mathews challenge, Anthony only wants the best fights so he can prove to himself just how good he his, we have him sparring with the bigger lads in the gym and he holds his own, he is certainly reaping the rewards, we hope to keep him busy in the coming months”
It was great for us to hear Joe’s plans for Anthony Crolla he certainly looks like one to watch for the future. We could not let Joe leave us without a few words on Matthew Macklin and Mr Gallagher respectfully obliged:
“The amount of letters and emails we have received after the Macklin Sturm fight has been incredible with so many saying Macklin won the fight. I have watched the fight so many times, I have looked at the punches thrown and punches landed and each time it is the same result and the NEW…”
“I believe Matthew won that fight and two people that mattered saw it differently unfortunately; even the German and Bosnian newspapers and radio said Matthew won the fight. It goes to show how important home advantage is; the crowd knew Sturm needed to do something to change the fight and they really got behind Felix and the crowd even convinced Jim Watt that Sturm was winning. I just do not understand how a couple of good punches out weighed Matthew’s aggression and body shots. Mathew should be given respect; we were up against a world class fighter with a world class trainer. It was almost as hard for me as it was for Matthew. We had the perfect training camp and the perfect facilities in Germany. Their Hospitality was first class, we never wanted for anything”
Dukes: where do we stand on the rematch said to take place in November?
Joe: “Sturm’s people have left the diary open for Matthew in November, they’re very good people. No venue has been confirmed yet but a ring is a ring and a fight is a fight. My job is to make sure Matthew is primed and ready for the rematch. We are fully aware that Sturm is much tougher the second time around and he will study the tapes from the last fight just as we will”
“IF MATTHEW WAS CHAMPION GOING INTO THE FIGHT HOW MANY ROUNDS WOULD STURM HAVE TAKEN OFF HIM”
“In any fight you have to go on the better work, Matthew threw and landed twice as many punches but didn’t get it. Maybe I have to change the way I’m training our fighters differently”
What a great pleasure it was talking to one of the highest regarded trainer’s in the UK and to get his thoughts on how his fighters are doing in and outside of the ring. Over the last couple of days Joe Gallagher has been kind enough to allow us these exclusives with his fighters and sharing their stories with our viewers. Make sure you return to catch part 2 on Joe Gallagher as he talks about the mega fight that is John Murray v Kevin Mitchell. Joe also pays tribute to the other top Boxing trainer’s from the UK.
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