Fighter in Boston on Saturday

“Get the win here and that’s really important for the next steps of my career.”

The Tralee-based firefighter, who last fought in June of last year, is confident that his preparations for the fight have been more than sufficient to prepare him for the challenge posed by Pierre. “Preparation has been brilliant,” he stressed. “Genuinely the best camp I’ve put down. Before I even knew I had a fight I was up days sparring with Páidí [McCrory] eight to ten round spars. So jumping into camp then I was sharp.

“All it was about was chipping down the weight, sharpening up the tools more and more. I’m ready for a title fight right now, not just a run out in America. So I’m a very good place.

“It’s all about the weight now. I’m a little bit heavier, I’m actually in the best shape of my life, I’d say my body fat has never been as low, but at the same time I’m a bit heavier than usual, but just because I’m growing into the weight class and conditioning well.

“We’ve a bit of a week ahead of us this week once we get over to Boston. Once we have that done that’s the hard part and when we go boxing we know what we can do in the right anyway. I’m 100% confident, but I just have to be prepared for that bit of danger that is there.

“We’ll see this guy coming down seeing he’s an underdog and it’s St Patrick’s weekend and wanting to upset the whole show, obviously I won’t be letting that happen, but it’s all a bit of experience.

“A different style. American style would be a different style to the way European fighters fight and the travelling and the cutting weight while you’re travelling as well is good experience.

“And it’s my first fight as well under Conlan Boxing and Mick Conlan so this is a whole new venture, a whole new experience for me going over there as well. There’s a lot of things that could go wrong and a lot of things that could go right as well and it’s keeping the ring rust off as well.”

The Milltown man’s excitement for the fight, which will be streamed live on his Facebook page, is palpable and it’s an excitement shared by some of his biggest fans.

“There’s twenty something people flying over,” he confirms.

“But there’s a bar, the Croke Park Bar, over in Boston and they’ve been selling tickets over in Boston for me and by all accounts there’s a big Irish crowd over very interested in it and a big Irish crowd already lined up to go.

“It’d be nice to see and by the sounds of things there should be a good atmosphere over there and it should be a great night.”