rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
Gary Cully is targeting ‘a big Irish showdown’ with Pierce O’Leary.
‘The Diva’ fights for the first time in 15 months when he trades leather on Queensberry’s 3Arena hosted St Patrick’s Week card on March 14.
The bout is the Kildare native’s first since his unanimous decision defeat to Maxi Hughes and since his eye injury healed.
The Sarto southpaw stylist sees the spring clash as his first step back toward world level and a journey that will end in a world title win.
If that world title fight was to be against ‘Big Bang’, who fights Mark Chamberlain in the co-main on March 14, all the better.
“Obviously, Peirce is from Dublin, from Ireland. I’m rooting for him in this fight. But, yeah, I reckon a big Irish showdown sells out and no problem for a world title one day,” Cully said last week.
“So that’s where I’m aiming to. I’ve obviously a bit to climb to get back to where I was and to get back to that level,” he added before sharing his world level self-belief.
“I know what level I can operate at. I’ve been in boxing for the last over 20 years.
“I’ve been operating at a high level for the last 20 years. So I know what level I’m capable of getting to. And this is just the first step of getting back there.”
There is also a redemption element to the next leg of the popular boxer’s journey. The 29-year-old admits defeats, he hasn’t felt the same since his surprise defeat to Mexican puncher Jose Felix, and now having truly put it behind him, is ready to show his true capabilities again.
“I need to go up and redeem myself and put in a good performance,” he told Irish-boxing.com.
“I feel like I haven’t really performed since the Felix fight… he beat me, and that loss took a lot of confidence out of me… since the fight, I wasn’t really performing or enjoying what I’ve been doing, it took a good while to get over it.”
