DEMON WINS WORLD TITLE
KICKBOXER ON WINNING THE GOLD
RYAN McDonald already has another world title in his sights after he captured the International WKBF Super Welterweight Amateur World Championship with a highlight reel finish.
The 30-year-old pulled off a spectacular spinning back fist knockout in the first round to defeat Abraham Rugato at NT Fight Series III in Darwin.
Stepping into the ring for the biggest fight of his career, McDonald was far from daunted as he needed only 30 seconds to put away his Brisbane-based opponent with one devastating blow.
“I threw a right kick and he darted out of the way and came back in really fast to counter me,” he said.
“I threw another kick about five seconds later just to see if he’d keeping doing it, and he shot in again and hit me with a jab and a cross – nothing major but landed a couple of strikes.
“So I threw a bit of a throwaway kick and then spun around and caught him with the spinning back fist. As soon as I connected, I threw my hands up and ran to the corner, because I knew it had found home. I could feel it in my elbow, it was a good shot.”
McDonald said he didn’t set out to use the flashy manoeuvre in the fight, but when the opportunity presented itself early, he took it.
“I was actually planning on taking his legs out, because he’s such a tall opponent,” McDonald said.
“He must have thought I was going to do that, so he was trying to shoot in and punish me after the kick, but I cottoned on to that pretty quickly.
“I’ve always tried to land a spinning back fist in a fight but I never actually connected with one.
“It’s a move I do use but it’s never actually found home, so it was pretty sweet to actually get the knockout with that technique.”
The win was the ultimate reward for McDonald, who faced a number of mental battles before even stepping into the ring.
His original opponent pulled out of the fight twice, so he was rematched with Rugato, but then the entire Brisbane show was cancelled due to Covid restrictions.
“Patto (McDonald’s coach, Patrick Doherty) rang around to all these other fight shows, any that he could find that were on, to see if they would take that match,” McDonald said. “I was meant to be fighting in Brisbane and he rang around and got the fight moved to Darwin. He’s always putting 110 per cent into us fighters and he really made that fight happen for me.
“It was a bit of a rollercoaster with opponents pulling out and swapping and then the fight not being on and being back on.
“It was an intense fight camp for about four months.”
The world title is the fifth and most significant belt in McDonald’s growing collection, which includes three Queensland and one Australian championships.
But one week on from collecting his latest scalp, he is already eyeing another world title at his preferred welterweight (66kg) division, or to defend his super welterweight (69kg) world title later this year.
“If I can fight for my actual weight, that would be awesome; I’d love to have that title on the rack at the gym as well,” he said.