 So then we're talking boxing and looking ahead to Jason Quigley's big fight, I'm delighted to say joining us Irish Sun Sports reporter Kevin Byrne, Kevin. Delighted to have you on Highland. Thanks, Oceane. Thanks for inviting me on. It's great to talk. Yeah, you're a man that has a wealth of knowledge of boxing and in particular Irish fighters and Jason Quigley. This has now met you the time Jason met his homecoming fight in Dublin several months ago and he was due to be part of this big summer extravaganza of boxing and Dublin, a big open air event. How come this Berlanga fight happened so quickly after that and plans changed? Do you think, Kevin? Speaking to Jason before that homecoming fight and alongside Andy Lee as well, he knew even though his last fight had gone pretty horribly, his world title fight ended it. It's the stuff of nightmares, I'm sure. Demetrius Andrade broke his jaw on the first round. Quigley was well aware and Andy Lee would have been telling him, Jason, all you need to do is have a comeback here, get back into winning ways. And you're a name, you're a commodity, you're a valuable part of boxing still and doors will open. And so it proved the guy he beat in his homecoming, Gabor Gorbitz, not a big name, not the sort of opponent who's going to move the needle, but just he got quickly back winning. And then the phone started to ring quite clearly. Remember we saw at the Dublin fight, the former Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker, Roberto Diaz was over in Dublin to, you know, he's got a close relationship with Quigley from the time to get her a Golden Boy. And I'm sure he's been working the angles and trying to get Quigley involved in a big fight. And look, it seems to have happened quite easily, doesn't he's got he got back active. He got a win. And suddenly he's got to call to headline a big event over at Madison Square Garden. Yes, you're saying the we were talking we were talking afterwards about this big summer showdown in Dublin and Quigley was going to fight again. But this is a bigger and better offer, I suppose. And the idea of Quigley having a big fight in a big home, a second homecoming fight in Dublin and getting a decent opponent over was probably fanciful. He doesn't have the promotional backing behind him to spend the money on bringing a good opponent over. We saw what happened last time. Gabor Gorbitz was the third or fourth replacement opponent Quigley had and that's what's going to happen when you don't have big money to spend on an opponent. You're not going to get the top guys. And Quigley is certainly in against the top guy in Edgar Berlanga now at Madison Square Garden. Yeah. So what's what can we expect of Berlanga? Obviously we know he's 20 and 16 of his fights came from knockout. But his his recent form hasn't been to what it was earlier in his career. So let's let on the table here. What's the what's the upper or what's the chances rather for Jason Quigley and this one at the weekend, Dave and Kevin? I would say he's he's quite a heavy underdog. He's been probably written off across, you know, boxing, Twittersphere and among the media, certainly in America, because you know, people are people were, should I say, very high on Berlanga for the first couple of years of his career. Like you said, they're rushing 16 knockouts in his first 16 fights and what's more, all of them in the first round. Nobody they nobody has all promoters top ranked seem to match him with could last more than around in Berlanga. A bit of a flat track bully, aggressive Puerto Rican New Yorker came out and blew everybody away until he stopped blowing everybody away. That first came in 2021. He'd been, you know, his big string of knockouts and then a guy called Damon Nicholson took him the eight rounds. And that was probably a bit of a shock to the system for Berlanga. He tried to get back on track, you know, get his knockout streak back again in the next fight. Kosair is then Steve Rolls, then Angulo, but it was the same thing brought to this. And so his ability to take out fighters at the higher levels, he's fighting that seems to evaporated. And it's probably frustrating him because something flat, flat track bullies don't enjoy is the other guy putting it up to him. Now, that's not to say he hasn't been winning his fights quite clearly. But some of the shine has gone off his name and some of the, and there's a, there has to be a reason behind his promoter's top rank. No longer working with him. Yeah. Well, how does Eddie Herron looking at this fight then? Because he took Berlanga on. Obviously, there's a connection there as well with, with Jason Quigley. What does, what does Herron want out of this fight from the two fighters? Berlanga still has a lot going from in New York, massive Puerto Rican boxing fans, massive number of Puerto Rican boxing fans, kind of like the Irish, but it seems that a Puerto Rican is the Puerto Rican boxing is probably even stronger. They've had a Miguel Cotto over the last two decades to kind of to burnish that there. Like we had John Duddy in the States and in New York as well. But Cotto had, you know, bigger and bigger and better fights, you know, an even more remarkable career, if it can be said, than John Duddy. So the Puerto Rican, the Puerto Rican boxing movement in New York is huge. It needs to be replaced. And maybe Herron sees Berlanga as the guy to do it. Not just that, though. There is not enough great opponents out there for the main man in boxing at the minute, Canelo Alvarez. As we've seen, he's beaten eight British opponents at this stage. You know, every time a British super middleweight or light heavyweight of note emerges, they end up fighting Canelo and they end up losing. He's beating them off from Billy Joe Saunders to most recently, John Ryder. I can name a model. He's gone through so many of his opponents at this stage that they're always looking for someone else. So Herron has seen the top ranker no longer working with Berlanga, snapped them up because it gives them a base in New York, gives them a ticket seller, gives them somebody that he can sell worldwide as an attraction. And if Berlanga can get back to knockout ways, he becomes must watch TV again. But also, he doesn't really need to do too much more to secure himself a Canelo fight for which he would be seen as just as much an underdog as Quigley is against him. However, it's a massive money fight. If he can get rid of Jason Quigley in style and the wording Eddie Hernandez put on it is if he can ice Jason Quigley even more impressively than Demetrius Andra did, which you know, he took him out quite early was in this the second round. So he says if Berlanga can be even more impressive. So it's all set up for Berlanga to go through Quigley for a short cut, first round knockout, that kind of thing. Put some put some heat back in his name and and then maybe one more fight one more win. And then he'll be a viable contender to take on Canelo. Okay. Could the stars align in any sort of way for Quigley in this fight? Do you feel Kevin? I think they could. I think I've always believed in Jason Quigley's ability to win fights. And even when he's up against it, like you have to think about like, for starters, Berlanga has no real amateur career to talk about, you know, one of my sources in New York said, you know, the lack of amateur pedigree for him is almost startling. Like he didn't he did compete as well. And he didn't win at amateur level. And we know some some fighters with a pro style can have that sort of struggle in the amateur ranks. And but also some of this source would mention that he's a flat track bully. And when someone does put it up to him, he falls he goes the distance and and this source also thinks that who has worked with Berlanga now this, you know, this is close close to home for him does this source does believe that if someone can stand up to him, take his punches, someone like Jason Quigley could stop him in the second round of the fight. And but also we have to look at Jason Quigley's amateur pedigree is it's it's extensive. It's 10 years last month since he won the European title. And then followed up that year by becoming the first Irish boxer, the first Irish man to reach a world championships final, you know, so his amateur pedigree, we also know he was a couple of times European underage champion to and he came out of the most competitive middleweight series we've ever had an Ireland as well, you know, beaten to be even to beat Aaron O'Neill to become Irish champion that year in 2013. You know, Olympic captain from the previous year. So we know Quigley has this incredible amateur pedigree. He's fought every style, you know, every single style. And he won't be overawed by Berlanga. Also, there's no hope that he's going to be overlooked. Isn't there? Because I think he said himself, he knows her in a set in the upper language for a hundred million dollar super fight with with Canelo and all his role in this drama is to come over and lie down. So he but he's got so much pride and so much ability. And I also believe that Quigley probably hasn't shown his best in the professional ranks. He's in it a long time nine years. He showed he showed everything. He showed the ability to knock out fighters. He showed fortitude. He showed massive resilience. He fought a couple of fights when he got very badly injured and continued. So he's got the heart. He's got a big heart. Obviously, things went badly against Android, you know, broken job, first exchange at a fight, never got to do himself justice in his world title fight. And I don't know him. That will annoy him. Absolutely. He's a cheerful guy. He doesn't really show frustration. But then, you know, when you do, when you do speak to him, you can really understand. He can really take it from him that it pisses him off or annoy. Yeah, sorry. It does annoy him, though, doesn't it? That he never got to show his best because all the dunnigol was behind him. He brought a lot of people that fight and he never got the opportunity. He never got the chance to try and stamp his authority on Android and said it was one way traffic. And that was it. You got to walk away heartbroken. And it was over a year until he was back in the ring and he did have his doubts. He thought about walking away. He says he's back now. And I also wonder what can Andy Lee offer him on this one? Jason is passionate in his defense of Andy Lee as his coach. I know there's been some rumblings that maybe the matchup isn't the right thing because for visa issues, Lee wasn't able to be in his corner for his world title fight, which had to be a massive blow for quickly's chances. And then for his homecoming fight, Lee missed that one as well. He had his television contract with Dazzone in the UK and he had to commentate on a fight that night. And he sent his brother Roger to take care of the corner. Lee is in his corner for this Berlanga fight and Lee will have an awful lot of contacts in New York Box and he lived in New York for a spell journey in his time in the States. He knows the boxing fraternity in New York like the back of his hand and he will know people who know Berlanga intimately. He will have heard rumors, whispers about weaknesses, strategies and stuff. And I know that Andy Lee and Jason Quigley are very close and as well as that, I can't I can't help but think and probably some of this stuff doesn't matter. It's more narrative and it interests me and it might have any effect on the fight whatsoever. But I can't help but think of the similarities of Lee's career and Quigley's career coming into this fight and I see it as a positive. Yeah. Well, hopefully it's going to turn out to be a positive day for Jason Quigley and Andy Lee can help work his magic as well. If Quigley is to pull this off, what sort of fight are you going to expect if it's going to go the way they don't want to go? He's going to have to take some heavy he's going to have to take some heavy shelling early on because Berlanga, like he's been told to do, has to go out and ice him. So he has to take the punishment. He has to take the punishment in the first couple of rounds. He has to spoil. He has to be tricky. He has to have a strong job. He also has to earn Berlanga's respect. He has to catch him at some stage in the first or second round or certainly enough that Berlanga thinks I'm being too reckless here because Berlanga is going to be reckless and he has to catch him coming in with maybe an uppercut or something like that. It's funny to see him stand face to face. Quigley is the guy coming up from middleweight. It's only a second fight at super middleweight or properly, his second proper fight at super middleweight. Berlanga has been there for a lot longer. So you think he's the bigger man but when you saw him at their face to face there at the top of one of the skyscrapers overlooking New York City, Quigley's taller and he's going to have a little bit of a size advantage. That said, Berlanga's a thick, he's a heavy set guy. He's got thick arms and thick trunks. He's going to come at him. Quigley's definitely going to have to absorb some heavy punishment early in the fight. Unfortunately, it was unable to do against Andrade, but we have to look at that shot as a, you know, Quigley's being hit hundreds of times in his boxing career and never got his jaw broken with the first punch of a contest. So we have to hope that that's not the case on this occasion and that his injury is fully healed and he's ready to go. If he can absorb, you know, if he can get through the first four rounds, maybe nick around there and be in the contest by the fifth or the sixth round, like I was mentioning before, you know, I'm thinking about Andy Lee's career and I'm thinking about the similarities. Lee had his first world title back in summer of 2012, this time June during the summer and he went against the Chavez Jr. down in El Paso and like Quigley's world title shot, everything went wrong. You know, it was even accusations of terrible dope testing and everything was against Andy Lee and the fight didn't go his way either and then he had to go on the slow rebuilds, almost like Jason Quigley has done, pick up the pieces and then find that even the interest in his career wasn't the same and he had to self motivate and he had to get himself back to the top and he managed to do so and one of the key venues on his comeback trail was Madison Square Garden when he fought against a guy called John Jackson who was pouring on the pressure and then he pulled out what's going to go down as one of the greatest knockouts in Irish boxing history and he was losing the fight, the pressure was on and Lee pulled out something so Quigley is back to when Andy Lee's greatest triumphs happened. It's a lucky venue for Lee, he also knocked out Carl Daniels at the same venue to set his career alight as well earlier on and he'll be delighted to be back there. Jason will be, I'd say, quite happy to be, quite content to be in New York this week as well and we saw a little bit of the open and trash talk there when Berlanger and Quigley came face to face and he says this is my city and Jason is like, I didn't do geography in school but I didn't need to be told that he's from New York, I'm well aware of it. But I think he's got... Sorry, Andy Lee, you mentioned that he pulled off that he was, the back was against the wall, he was, the fight was going against him and he pulled off the knockout, he was able to pull off the big knockout. Is there a big knockout in Jason Quigley? Does he have the big punch to won this? Well, that's a tough question and we haven't seen one punch power too lately in Quigley's career either which there was a spell in Andy Lee's career, we did wonder was it there, was it there but you know he did probably have more of a track record of being able to do so and we all, and especially by the time he got to his second world title fight, everybody knew Andy Lee can knock you out with one punch and he kind of did win the world title, he set up to finish with a big right hook. Can Quigley do so? Well, everybody can be knocked out you know and he does have a good knockout ratio and Quigley himself will be the first to admit that his knockout ratio is probably too high because he was fighting against guys who weren't really on his level for the first kind of 8-10 fights of his career and he almost wishes that those were harder fights or his opponents went more round so he could have picked up more experience. That being said, he does have experience of finishing fighters, he has taken out a lot of fighters on his way up in boxing and I think he'd be confident again that he can apply to finish if it does present itself but I think he's going to be prepared for a long hard night, go to distance, win the rounds and like the Quigley, even though he's been a professional for nine years, the Quigley I still think of is the top amateur who can get a decision over just about anyone if he applies himself correctly on the night. The guy who's completely prepared for every style and is super fit, he's a professional you know inside and outside the ring and that's the kind of Quigley I'm looking at to win here. Probably going to have to go to distance and if you can, you're going to have to hurt the guy, you're going to have to earn his respect but if you're both still standing after 10 rounds what you're ideally looking for is him to have dominated the second half of the fight and picked off a couple of rounds in the first half. Okay, well the result doesn't go as way and he avoids the, I suppose, the heavy stuff coming on the early part of the fight Kevin. If he takes this guy the distance or goes the distance and puts in a solid performance even though it would lose the fight, what sort of direction would that mean for his career because if what happened against Andred happens again it's not going to be good for his career but if he's able to go the distance and put in a performance here, obviously defeat doesn't mean it's the be all and end all, there's going to be other opportunities there if he gets the respect of the fighters as opposed to the top men in boxing with a good showing. Exactly, I think it's what can he tell himself afterwards and how is his own desire shaping up, like as we know Jason Quigley got married this year, he's got a light set up outside of boxing, he's got good context in the media, I saw him working on doing a bit of commentary for the zone on the Katie Taylor, Chantel Cameron fight their reasoning doesn't look like they're going to have a rematch and you know, Quigley could have a role there and he's also helping manage fighters as well. So we know that outside of the ring, he looks like he's set up, you know, to be connected with boxing but he can probably do anything he wants as well he's a very smart guy, I've always noticed that about Jason. However, his in ring desire, if he does go to distance, he and he puts on a good show and let's say he loses a close fight, I think he's probably going to be able to tell himself, you know what? I didn't do myself justice in my first world title fight. This was a major event against a New Yorker who's probably going to fight Canelo, it could be a multiple time world champion, we don't know, but if he quickly goes to distance against them, he can say, I'm back, I know the level I'm at, I probably know a couple of mistakes I made in the fight and I could have won the fight, had things gone slightly my way and I'd say he would be able to tell himself, you know what? I can go again, I can win a world title because like, like we say, Lee didn't win a world title at his first attempt, this isn't a world title shot. Took Steve Collins until his third fight, a third world title fight to win a world title and also he would be able to tell himself, I'm still adjusting at super middleweight, I put on a good show for a couple of rounds, I can beat other guys at my weight and you know what, there are other viable fights out there, his contacts with Roberta Diaz, he could probably pull off a fight with Hami Mungia to get another world title shot, I don't think I don't think a close points defeat is disastrous at all, but like if Berlanga has his way, hasn't already finished, it's probably going to be good night. Well listen, we'll see, we'll see what happens and how the fight pans out over the weekend. Listen Kevin, good to talk to you, good to see you and we've got the fingers crossed we're just going to get the weekend, don't we? Absolutely, I think he's got the backing of everybody in Irish boxing for this one, he's a good guy, he's a very popular fella, never messed anyone around and he's always straight down the line, so I think everyone's going to be behind Jason Cookely in his attempt this weekend. Okay, we look forward to it, thanks Kevin. Cheers.