Looks like it's going to be McCloskey-Witter for the vacant Euro belt

Good match up but the styles are going to go together like dog **** and bread.

 

Yummy:good

 

belter, il be stealing that one for future use. i dont think this fight could be as bad as made out. if its in belfast mccloskey will have the crowd on his back and maybe go after witter a little more than he usually does

 

Has the look of a crossroads fight about it. Stylistically, I would have preferred to see McCloskey vs Brook, but this could prove an easier fight and a victory over Witter for the European title would propel him towards a World Title fight, so for that reason I'm really looking forward to seeing this fight.

 

Will not be pretty but i think if both at their best, Witter will have too much for him

 

Witter will have way too much for McCloskey at this moment in time ..... huge gamble for McClo to take ..... but Witter to stop him mid rounds IMO ....

 

I think McCloskey will win a messy fight with a lot of falling in, over balancing, clinching, posing.

I expect his youth and extra work-rate to make the difference on points.

Strangely enough I'd still look forward to this...it would be ugly yet intriguing.

 

Great match up..... Mccloskey is manged so well. Trestimony to his camps self belief. I've got a funny feeling he'll win this unless he walks onto one. It will be huuuge if its in Ireland.

 

McCloskeys chin will definitely be tested in this fight. Hope he actually gets K'D so he will protect it more.

 

To be honest Jeff it'd be quite big in Ireland but not quite huge.
McCloskey's last two fights have seen him become recognised a lot more in Britain, but since they haven't appeared on RTÉ(with Sky having sole rights to 3 McCloskey fights since the Lynes win) they have gone unnoticed by the general Irish person. Yes boxing fans have certainly noticed but boxing fans make up a small % of the population, and a small % of the population that actujally watch the shows on RTÉ.

He headlined an RTÉ show when he fought Cesar Bazan, and was the main undercard fight for 3 other cards when he fought Nigel Wright(on Lee v Gibbs card), Manuel Garnica(on Lee v Falliga card) and Tontcho Tonchev(on Duddy v Eastman card) so had built a bit of a profile in Ireland despite going unnoticed here and now it seems the opposite has happened.
If Brian Peters can convince RTÉ to pay Sky enough to let them show the fight in Ireland(presumely Sky would retain UK and International rights), then it could be quite big.

However if it's not on RTÉ then even though it'll get a very good crowd, and get good coverage in the Northern press it'll make very little impact in the majority of the country and be pretty much unnoticed. Which you'd think is pretty odd considering most of the people that will have watched McCloskey in the past either have Sky or easy access to Sky, but that's the truth.


So potentially a huge fight(if picked up by RTÉ), or potentially an average fight in this country. It will be a huge fight for us Irish boxing fans though, it'd be great to have a European champion to complement the man in my avatar and his WBA title.

 

What a shame.... Its got all the ingrediants for a classic purist match up.... plus with the former world champion angle I thought Brian Peters would love to promote this one on a large scale over there.

 

I'd think it would be a far better sell in Ireland as well....... Witter cannot sell tickets to his immediate family never mind the 'casual' fan......

I'd go with McCloskey to steal a points win, in a snoozer.

 

Peters will be eager but it'll be all down to what RTÉ say and if they don't think it's worth paying SKY for the rights(and with the economic climate the way it is they certainly mightn't) then it just won't be that big unfortunately.

Regardless of national and tv coverage you can expect a big attendance at the actual fight though, Northern Irish fans are great at supporting their boxers and you can expect them to turn up in big numbers no matter what.

With or without RTÉ it'll still be a bigger fight if it's staged in Ireland.


Actually what I never considered is that ITV have rights on Witter(as a Hennessey fighter), so possibly ITV and Sky will have to come to some arrangement and if it were to be ITV showing it I reckon RTÉ would pick up the rights alright.

The thing is this would probably be a Friday Fight Night on Sky and really the fight is so much more than that. Peters wouldn't want it on a Friday either, Saturday is the normal day for big boxing cards here in Ireland and it'd be unusual to have it on a Friday.

 

Branco can be a weirdo sometimes. I think Branco was a decent comeback fight for Witter. Witter v McCloskey is a true cross roads fight. One wants to prove he still has it, the other wants to prove he is it! I like.