Ready to rumble

ENNIS kickboxer Seamus Geoghegan will be defending the pride of both his county and country this weekend when he takes on Scottish middleweight Ryan Kyle as part of a full-contact international fight night in Wexford.

Saturday’s fight will see Geoghegan, a powerful 75kg fighter with a hard-hitting style, who has amassed an impressive 16-3-1 record over the past six years, step into the ring for the first time wearing his country’s colours against an opponent who ranks in the UK’s top ten middleweights.
“It’s such an honour,” said the 30-year-old black belt kickboxer about the fight this week.
Despite getting the offer to step in the ring in the Irish colours from the Irish Kickboxing Federation’s international organiser Billy Murphy a few months ago, the magnitude of the fight only began to register with him recently.
“The last six weeks have been up and down to Wexford for squad training and sparring and that’s when it really hit that I’m going to be representing my country,” he said.
Training up to twice a day, six days a week has Geoghegan primed for the battle. He gets put through his paces twice a week with his club in Ennis and every Saturday with the rest of the national squad in Wexford. He also trains at home where his fianceé, Sarah-Jane Ryan, who also holds a black belt in kickboxing, adds her own considerable ring-smarts and technical knowledge of the sport to Geoghegan’s preparations.
The work and his experience have left him deservedly confident, but not cocky. A man ready to do a job.
“I’ve been in the ring so many times now it doesn’t matter who they put me in against. It could be  Ghengis Khan,” he joked.
“If you slip up fighting Seamie, you’ve lost the fight,” said Geoghegan’s trainer, Tony O’Donnell, referring to the power the fearsome middleweight packs into every blow. “You’d want to be on top of your game if you meet him in the ring,” he said.
O’Donnell, himself a storied and successful fighter, also mentioned Geoghegan’s commitment to kickboxing, particularly to the years of dedication he’s put into his training.
“He’s representing his country because he put the time in. He deserves this honour. There’s no half-measures with Seamie,” he said.
A member of the highly successful Ennis Kickboxing Club under Tony O’Donnell, Geoghegan’s clubmates include undisputed IKF and WKA Irish lightweight and light welterweight champion, Adam Leyden, and up-and-coming light middleweight Niall O’Donnell, who made his international debut last year, beating Scottish and English open champion Kevin Smith in a three round rumble in the National Stadium in Dublin.
The Battle of the Celts event is a 17-fight card being held in White’s Hotel in Wexford Town. The main events will be the seven international fights – two of them for five-nations belts – with the 10-bout undercard featuring Ennis Kickboxing Club fighters Niall O’Donnell, John Kerin, and the formidable and impressive Donna Doherty, making her full-contact debut on the night.