GUEST COLUMN
But ‘The Monster’ won’t scare me one bit when we meet in Tokyo on May 25
Jamie Mcdonnell’s “Monster” hunt
I’LL be honest. When I was asked if I wanted to fight Naoya Inoue, I didn’t know a lot about him.
I watch all the big fights and the big names but I’m not one for sitting back and watching everything that goes on around me. So, once Eddie Hearn (promoter) put the fight to me, and said there was an offer, I had to go on Boxrec and type in ‘super-flyweight’. I couldn’t even remember they guy’s name.
Then, once I saw it, I copy and pasted his name into Youtube and watched a couple of videos.
I spoke to Gavin (Mcdonnell, brother) about it and he said, “This is a good fight for you. You can make a name for yourself here.” And I know exactly what he means.
Don’t get me wrong, Inoue looks sharp and can obviously bang, but that doesn’t scare me. I think it scares a lot of people. Not me, though. I’ve been there and done it.
When I fought Tomoki Kameda (in 2015), he’d won 31 and knocked 19 out. He came with a big reputation and could bang. But I dealt with him easily.
Which is why this doesn’t faze me. I don’t feel out of my depth. If anything, I feel more motivated than ever. I’ve got everything to prove in this fight. Everyone is going to write me off, I know they will, but when I finally watched Inoue, I thought, ‘yeah, I can beat this kid.’
You don’t get any credit when you beat the likes of Liborio Solis and Fernando Vargas. You’re expected to win. It’s a different kind of motivation you get when you’re up against someone who is supposed to be the next superstar.
Also, he won’t have been in with anyone like me. I don’t look anything special. But then I’m in there with you and you feel the strength and the pace. He’ll be looking at me now and thinking, ‘yeah, I’ll smash this kid.’ That’s what they all think.
It’s not a payday for me. I can get a payday by taking other fights. It’s not money that is motivating me here. This is the sort of challenge I want. You’ll see the best of me when I’m up against the best.
Ask any fighter and they’ll tell you these fights keep you sharp. I know I can get knocked out in this one. He could flatten me. That is enough to make sure I’m on it.
As for Tokyo, it’s not somewhere I thought I’d ever go, but I’m really looking forward to it. It’s obviously work for me, so I’ve got to knuckle down, but it will be a good adventure. I’ll do a little bit of a sightseeing - it’s all an experience - and then I’ll box Inoue’s head off. So long as I do what Dave Coldwell (trainer) tells me to do, I think I beat him and look good doing it.
Finally, a word on my brother, Gavin, who just produced the performance of his career to beat Gamal Yafai. When he came through, nobody believed in our kid and he didn’t believe in himself. But he’s improved so much and now we’re seeing what he’s all about. I knew he’d smash Yafai and I knew he’d wreck him in the final five rounds. And he did.
Everything was perfect – just what Coldwell teaches us. I went straight home and watched it back immediately. I watched it from round six and when I got to the tenth I was shadowboxing all over again. I loved it. I was buzzing.
That rubs off on me now. Gavin’s performance against Yafai beats a lot of my best wins. It doesn’t beat the top ones, but it beats a lot of them. So I now have to step up my game. I want to be remembered as the better brother. I don’t want to retire and have people talking to me about the day Gavin looked a million dollars against Yafai.
I’m upping my game now. Inoue’s in for a shock.
‘IT WILL BE AN ADVENTURE, I’LL DO A BIT OF SIGHTSEEING’