Dudey's bloody hard work of it!

PAUL McCLOSKEY made bloody hard work of his job in Belfast on Saturday night — but he does not care.
That is because victory over Colombian Breidis Prescott in their WBA world title eliminator gives him a chance of finally realising his dream.
Beaten in April by Amir Khan for the world title, McCloskey was left heartbroken as the ref stepped in when he was cut above the eye.
There was blood — some — but nothing like the amount of claret that flowed against Prescott at the Odyssey.
This time it was not the sixth round — but the second in which McCloskey took some heavy fire and he had to dig as deep as he ever had to in his 24-fight career.
He was forced to endure blood pouring down his throat for the rest of the fight, spitting enough on the canvas over the following  10 r
But ‘dig deep’ he did — and now he cannot be denied another shot at glory after edging a tight unanimous decision.

McCloskey, 32, said: “My hardest fight? It probably was, aye. For attrition and hurt and having to dig deep.
“It wasn’t my best performance but he dragged me into a fight I didn’t expect. The reach was longer than I expected. I had been sparring for it. It just wasn’t the same.
The first couple of rounds I was slow and I knew I’d need to speed up. I think from the sixth, seventh on I slowed him down with a few bodyshots and I could see his power diminish. I knew this from when I studied him. He’s a four or five-round fighter and I can see now that he is.
“My trainer John Breen wanted me to throw more combinations — but it wasn’t as easy as it looked in there.”

He is right there with the proof in the thudding shots he was forced to take in the first seven rounds, before before the tide turned.
Only his superb conditioning - and sheer bloody-mindedness - saw him emerge from the trenches with a unanimous points decision.
Prescott copped the brunt of McCloskey’s attack to the body in the middle section.  His early threat had not resulted in the stoppage he predicted within six rounds.
Like McCloskey, he is desperate for a money-spinning rematch with WBA ‘super’ and IBF champion Khan, an interested spectator back in England.
But it looks like he will never again get a chance to prove his 54-second demolition job in 2008 was no fluke.
It will be McCloskey who moves on to the next level after proving he can come from behind against a heavy hitter.

McCloskey added: “My conditioning is superb — I never had any doubt that I would be able to win the fight.
“John asked me how I was feeling after seven rounds and I said ‘John I feel great’ — it was just my nose.
“I’ve been building it up a notch even since the Khan fight with my conditioner Ollie Cummings. One day I told him ‘Ollie I’m f*****’, what’s going on?’ And he said we’d taken it up a level again.”
Breen added: "What a pair of balls he has. That’s a bigger and stronger man than Khan is, yet Paul went and won five out of the last six rounds.”
While Khan is his dream fight, a match-up with WBA ‘regular’ champ Marcos Maidana is the more likely now.

McCloskey’s promoter Eddie Hearn said: “The great thing about boxing is that if you bring something to the table, you can get the fights.
“If Paul had fought tonight in a car-park with 50 people watching, he might not get the big fights.
But we’ve got Sky Sports, a great atmosphere,  the amount of people who have texted to say that and people will watch that and say ‘there’s some money to be made there’.
"And it’s a money game. Whether Khan decides to fight, or Maidana, I don’t care who it is.
He's proved to the people that he’s got the steel and determination. We all know he’s got the ability and what he showed more than anything was heart, nuts and desire. And that’s why he deserves a world title shot."