'They will know who Connor Coyle is come October 8th!'

Connor Coyle is determined to spoil the party at London’s O2 Arena on Saturday night, by inflicting a first professional defeat on Felix Cash and upsetting potentially 20,000 fans in the process.

‘The Kid’ is putting his own undefeated record of 17-0 on the line when he meets Cash in the warm up to the Chris Eubank Junior and Conor Benn main event, and he is determined to give the sell-out crowd something to remember him by.

There was some doubt over the entire event yesterday following a ruling by the British Boxing Board of Control that the fight in London on Saturday between Benn and Eubank Jr should be “prohibited”. But as far as Coyle’s team is concerned, it is all systems go for the weekend.

Local favourite Cash is currently 15-0 with 10 stoppage wins while Coyle who has spent most of his pro career in the United States, will be an unknown to many. But in his first UK fight, the Derry man is certain he can make his mark against Cash.

“Of course, he’s a dangerous opponent,” he admitted. “He’s fought at a higher level at professional level than me because he’s been signed with Matchroom for a long time and he’s been getting the high-profile fights, while I have had to come up at the back end and take the harder fights, harder in a way where I had to travel and go through certain situations just to get into the ring. He’s been handed these big fights and he has been a little less active than I have been, so I think that will play better on my part come fight night.”

Coyle fought just two weeks' ago when he defeated Silverio Ortiz in Florida and has been back in the gym ever since, determined to gran this huge opportunity.

“The fight between myself and Cash could possibly be the fight of the night,” he stated. “Our boxing abilities and styles will just be great for TV. We are both boxers and both punchers; we both throw a lot of punches and I just think it’s going to be an exciting fight. It is just going to come down to who lands the harder shots and who’s in control from the beginning. It’s going to be interesting and I’m excited for it and I’m going to do everything possible to do that.”

Glitz and glamour

Coyle and his team have been in London this week ahead of this fight, and amidst all the glitz and glamour of a huge fight night, the 32-year-old knows that he goes into the biggest fight of his career as an underdog in the locals’ eyes.

“They probably think their guy can beat me, but within the past year Eddie Hearn and Matchroom have been trying to get me over for fights on their bills,” he explained. “Obviously the contracts weren’t right and didn’t suit. This one did suit at the time and we accepted it. They know my background in boxing and they know how good I am as well and they do put the best in with the best so it can be any man’s fight on the night, it’s just who wants it more really, who shows up and who performs the best, but I just feel I have that bit more talent than Felix Cash.”

Saturday night provides Coyle with the opportunity to prove just how talented he is, in front of a 20,000-sell-out crowd, Eddie Hearn in person and potentially millions more on pay-per-view. He insists he will not let that opportunity pass him by.

“Without a doubt this is my opportunity now to do the best that I can do and just go out and look really, really good while being composed and winning all the rounds and looking good doing it,” he said. “I can’t go out here and look bad and freeze, I’ve got to show everybody who’s watching in the UK, Ireland and across the world, people who haven’t seen me fight before, and let them know who Connor Coyle is in the Middleweight division, because there’s a lot of people posting for Cash, but they don’t even know who I am, but they will know who I am after October 8.”

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