Tommy McCarthy says he has finally ticked a box that will take him not only to European title glory this Saturday night but also the summit of the cruiserweight division.
Belfast man McCarthy battles with Belgian Bilal Laggoune for the vacant European cruiserweight title behind closed doors on Sky Sports Box Office believing a new approach to his diet will have him ready to land a belt he has always craved.
“For this fight I have teamed up with Stephen Floyd and for the first time in my career I have had proper nutritional advice and I’ve seen it pay off already. The energy I’ve had has been great, I’ve been eating loads and the weight has been falling off,” said McCarthy.
“It has made a big difference and it has given me a whole new perspective about diet when preparing for a fight. When I was in the High Performance Unit as an amateur we had the best of people advising us but I never had someone helping me as a pro to this point because I never really felt I had found someone qualified to give the right advice.
“You see this a lot in professional boxing, guys who read a couple of books and maybe have done a course and they think they are qualified nutritionists but as far as I’m concerned if you haven’t gone to university and studied it then how can you really give out the right advice? It’s the same with coaching, you have guys training fighters who believe they can do it but have no experience or grounding in the sport – they’re just PT instructors.
“It couldn’t happen in any other sport – you couldn’t turn up at Manchester United and say, ‘I’ve coached this Under-10s team so I’m ready to coach the United first team’ but in professional boxing it’s almost like that in some cases.
“Stephen has worked with a few of the local lads and they are very happy with him and I’ve been very pleased with how it has gone in this camp. It hasn’t been the case of a plan for six weeks but rather each night I would email him what I would be doing the next day, whether that be sparring or a gym session, and he would email back exactly what and when to eat. I then pass it on to my wife and she cooks it!
“Before, I would have just cut out meals and put on a sweat suit to make the weight because that’s the way it always was but now I’ve been able to work with high intensity right throughout the camp so I couldn’t be more ready for this fight.”
McCarthy has been working hard with former amateur team-mate Steven Ward – both men won silver medals for Northern Ireland at the Commonwealth Games in 2010 – as well as young professional Paul McCullagh, who enjoyed a successful debut last weekend.
McCarthy added: “Steven’s a classy operator, very well schooled, and he has now moved up to cruiserweight and is looking for a British title shot. We had some very good spars and the work with Paul McCullagh was very good as well. Paul has to be the hardest puncher I’ve ever shared a ring with, he kept me on my toes.
“I feel that everything is now set up for me to give a career-best performance and I believe it will be. It’s a fight that can change my career. Win and I join a select band from here who have won the EBU blue belt and I’ll be on track for a world title shot.”
Sunday Life
