SPEAK OF THE DEVIL
I’ll be ‘possessed’ for title fight, says Farooq
Ahead of the biggest showdown of his career so far, Kash Farooq believes he’ll be ‘possessed by the devil’ walking into the ring at the emirates arena tonight.
Yet to lose in 13 fights, the bantamweight faces fellow unbeaten Scot Lee McGregor in a unification bout for their respective British and Commonwealth titles.
It’s a match-up that has captured the imagination, with tickets having sold out five weeks before fight night.
Now, however, both men will have to live up to the hype in front of an expectant Glasgow crowd.
‘I do my talking in the ring — you’ll see a different sort of person in the ring,’ said Farooq. ‘Right now, I’m quite cool and calm but on Saturday, the devil will be in me. I’ll be possessed.
‘There isn’t enough room for two people because there can only be one.
‘Lee will be thinking the same but he has caught me at the wrong time. I’m really hungry and I want to win this one so much. It’s great that I’m fortunate enough to be part of it. ‘This will go down in history as one of the big fights in Scotland. I want to put on a great performance and write my name into history.’ Tonight’s showdown has been a year in the making. The Scottish duo were tipped to meet at the start of the year after Farooq beat duane Winters to win his British title in September last year and McGregor won his Commonwealth belt a month later against Thomas essomba of Cameroon. It took a while for the camps to come to an agreement and, despite the initial frustrations, the fight has subsequently grown in size and anticipation. ‘as soon as I won the British title, people kept mentioning Lee,’ added Farooq. ‘a month later, he won the Commonwealth belt, so this fight has been talked about for over a year and here it is now — bigger than ever. ‘I know Lee wanted it at the beginning of this year. So did I, to be honest, but now it is on an even bigger stage and it is the right fight at the right time for me.’ as a man who lives and breathes boxing, 23-year-old
Farooq claims he has learned to limit constantly thinking about upcoming fights, which, previously, has had him burnt out before the bell.
‘I would be a big fan (of this clash) and I would probably be coming to watch it (if I wasn’t involved),’ declared Farooq.
‘I’m really happy to be part of this and it will be an honour to be in the ring on Saturday night.
‘It’s on my mind but I try to really switch on to think about the fight on the night.
‘If you think about it weeks out, you then end up wasting energy. I’ve done that before and you end up thinking about the fight too much. Come the actual night, you’re burnt out mentally.
‘I know boxing is physical but it’s just as much mental, so you just have to really think about the fight on the night.’
Given what is at stake, Farooq admits to being a little nervous, but believes it is necessary to be like that to bring out his best performance.
he added: ‘Oh yes, nerves keep you on the edge of your toes and make you perform on the night.
‘If you don’t have those nerves, you’re not going to perform because you’re going to get too slack.
‘I will be nervous, every fighter going into a ring is — but that’s part of the night.’
The relationship between the pair goes back four years, when they were both fighting on the Scotland team and room-mates for a trip to Wales.
Being in different weight classes meant the two never considered the possibility of facing each other in the professional ranks, with McGregor admitting: ‘It’s mad. In 2015, Kash and I were down in Wales (as part of the Scotland team). We were room-mates.
‘If someone was to say to us in four years you would be involved in Scotland’s biggest fight in more than a decade, we would have both have burst out laughing. Genuinely, we would.
‘This is what you dream of as a kid, being involved in something like this.
‘We both won our fights down in Wales. I think Scotland beat Wales something like 10-1.
‘We really gave them a hiding that night. Kash was at 56kg then. I was 52kg, so I was the weight below him.
‘That’s why we never fought in the amateurs. I was always the weight below, believe it or not. I don’t know how!
‘We never crossed paths but we would help each other with sparring when I was still amateur and going away to the World Championships.
‘That’s the last time we shared a ring together. I’ve now had seven fights as a pro, and he has had 13.
‘We are two totally different fighters now, so you can’t really look much into the sparring.
‘When we shared rooms, we were just young lads going away on boxing trips and it was just general chat.
‘Kash is a good lad and I have loads of respect for him. But when that first bell goes on Saturday night, then that respect goes out of the window.’