He might as well. He'll never have power or a great tactical brain, but he is fit and tough with decent skills so nothing to lose, go for it Mick!
Former Irish Am National Rep Clonard Conor Quinn made his pro debut on Horn vs Zerafa undercard and won his pro debut in 82 sec fighting at 122 lbs.
We must get behind Luke Keeler as he prepares for the Andrade fight! Anybody got any thoughts? To start the ball rolling I think Luke will obviously have to improve further and box the right fight. Luke's been very inaccurate with his right hand in the past. He throws a kind of looping chopping right hand to the head that misses a lot. That said when it does land it loops around and lands behind the head and is a hurtful punch that could if used sparingly hurt Andrade. But for me Luke must focus on the body for the first 5 rounds...most if not all of which he will lose IMO to be blunt. But he must drain Andrades tank early on and come on strongly later. In the early rounds Luke needs to concentrate exclusively on the hittable target, the body. Not, not , NOT be tempted to swing and miss for the head. Shorten his right and throw it to the centre mass, not pot shot for Andrades elusive head. That will come later. Left hook also exclusively to the body. Rinse and repeat. Over and over. Don't get discouraged. Keep it simple and keep it up. From bell to bell. Non stop. Hit arms and gloves a lot, but hit something, don't waste fresh air shots. It will pay off. Luke also must move his own feet, watch his balance, and move his own head a lot. He can't be there for Andrades favourite 4-5 punch combinations. Andrade is not a killer puncher but he will Nickle and dime you to death if you let him. That's my initial thoughts anyway. Anybody got anything to add?
Ireland arguably have the best Welterweight Prospects of any country! Aaron Mckenna, Paddy Donovan, Lee Reeves, Lewis Crocker
Crikey I'm not too sure it's that good Marty but thanks for the kind word. I'm very excited for Luke getting his big chance and I kinda jumped in with both feet. I should have started with the opponent. Many irish fans might not know Andrade. So this is my take on him: The Opponent: Physically long and lean. Rare Unusual Right handed southpaw (so was hagler as I recall). Slippery and elusive, like herol Graham was and looks a bit like herol too. Punishes every mistake. Fit athletic high workrate guy. He basically wins by hitting you more than you hit him. Fast hands and has out worked all his opponents so far...dont get me wrong, he is no clueless windmiller. Andrade can look very classy. Very smooth fluid fast puncher. Repeated 4-5 punch combos are no trouble to him and he is very accurate. Scores a lot of knockdowns but few kos... very good straight left and his speciality punch is a very nasty lead right uppercut that splits the guard and is very hard to defend against. He is not robust physically, yet is good at cute, well timed roughhousing, if that makes sense, by clever use of speed balance and leverage he upends a lot of guys off their feet, and there's always the risk of it being called a knockdown against you in those cases. So...a real handful... Luke is up against it, no doubt!! Well that's all I can think of to say about Andrades strengths for now..
There's a good chance Andrade will under estimate Luke, and he will do that to his detriment. Luke has improved so much in the last two years under Taylors guidance that I truly feel there's a strong possibility he could pull it off. Fingers crossed
Well he won't be out of shape, Andrade, cos he never is. Always manages to outperform outwork and outpunch opponents round after round. Unbeaten and as I say has hardly lost a round. However Andrade is a moved up light middleweight, and should be physically less robust than Luke. Conversely Luke should be sturdier and I feel he takes a shot better than most of Andrades previous victims.
Cully hopefully but good contest. Noticed there's another boxing promotion in Belfast the same night. One of Boxing Ireland promotions
