Mark McKeown hopes he’s done enough to put himself in contention for a title shot this year after clocking up a convincing points win over Engel Gomez at the Hydro on Saturday night.
The Coatbridge fighter was first up in the Josh Taylor v Jack Catterall undercard and had his Nicaraguan opponent on the canvas inside the first round – and feels he would have had him out the ring earlier had it not been right before the bell.
But he says the work he’s putting in at Keir Hardie ABC in Newarthill with coaches Barry Clark, Kev Morrison and Gary Smith is paying dividends in the ring.
He said: “Hopefully I can go on to titles this year. That would be brilliant - that’s the main aim and it’s why we’re doing all this.
“In all the stuff we’re doing, we’re ticking all the boxes, and this is just going to pay off for me this year.
“It is brilliant. Me, Barry, Kev and Gary, we just bounce off each other and we’re the perfect team for each other.
“I’m really grateful to have them pointing me in the right direction, and everything they do I completely trust in everything they say, and everything they drill in the gym, because it works in the fight.
“They do all the thinking, I do all the doing!”
On his big arena experience in Glasgow, McKeown, 27, added: “It was absolutely brilliant. It was a great night, and a good win over a good opponent.
“Some of the shots we had been working on as well, so that’s always good when stuff you’ve been drilling in the gym works in the fight.
“I knocked him down in the first round but it was about five seconds to go, or I think I would have had him out of there.
“But he recovered well and he was a tough, tough guy.
“That has given me a taste for that. I was on a bit earlier, so it was mostly the crowd that was there to see me that was there, but it was still brilliant.
“In a massive stadium like that, a small crowd made some amount of noise.”
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