EARLIER this year, the Red Triangle talent spoke to BN about regaining form, momentum and what lies ahead.
Peter McGrail has named the domestic rival he expects to face if Dennis McCann is stripped of the British and European super-bantamweight titles.
McCann was ruled out of defending against the Liverpool southpaw on the Tyson Fury-Oleksandr Usyk II undercard in Riyadh in December after his VADA (Voluntary Anti-Doping Agency) Test revealed adverse results.
McGrail ended up boxing another unbeaten Rhys Edwards up at 130lbs and outpointed him over 10 rounds, a result that surely cements his place as mandatory challenger for the British and European belts.
McCann, who won the vacant British title by outpointing McGrail’s stablemate in Birmingham last March, could be stripped and should that happen, McGrail expects to be paired with Shabaz Masoud.
The 28-year-old from Stoke took the IBO title from Liam Davies in their grudge fight in Birmingham in November.
“I rate him,” said McGrail of ‘The Maverick’.
“I’ve never boxed him or sparred him, but he’s good and it’s a good fight, a big domestic fight that will get people talking. We need to see what happens with Dennis first. It doesn’t look too good for him at the minute, but if he doesn’t get banned or stripped, I still want that fight.
“Either way, I want those British and European titles. Being European champion gets you high up in the world rankings.”
The match with McCann was much anticipated and McGrail was obviously hugely disappointed after the 12-rounder against the 16-0-1 ‘Menace’ from Maidstone fell through.
“The emotions were mad,” he admitted. “I found out it was off the day before I was flying out to Saudi.
“The first thing I had to deal with was knowing I wasn’t going to become British and European champion.
“For a few days I was thinking I wasn’t going to fight, but I stay focused and then I found out I had a new opponent on Tuesday night.”
The 16-0 Edwards stepped in and cut McGrail before the Scouse southpaw was handed a unanimous decision by one, two and two points on the scorecards.
McGrail, who fought from the third with a cut over his right eye, wasn’t alone in thinking he won by a wider margin, but admits the Welshman pushed him.
“He was probably a tougher opponent than Dennis would have been,” said McGrail. “He was fit and I boxed two weights above my division. I was getting down to super-bantamweight and ended up boxing at 130lbs. I felt all right in there. It was a good experience.”
McGrail picked up a wealth of experience during an amateur career that brought him European Senior championship gold, World Championship bronze and Commonwealth Games (gold).
The 2020 Olympian shared a ring with both Shakur Stevenson and Robeisy Ramirez in World Series of Boxing.
Ramirez outpointed Stevenson in the 2016 Olympic bantamweight final and McGrail said: “Ramirez was stronger, but Stevenson was a lot harder to hit. He had a great defence.”
Ramirez and Stevenson have both won world honours in the pros and McGrail says he hopes to box for one of the major four belts at 122lbs “towards the end of the year or early next year.”
Naoya Inoue currently holds those titles, and Nick Ball, McGrail’s gym mate at Everton Red Triangle, has ambitions to get his hands on the pound-for-pound Japanese star, should he move up to 126lbs.
Ball is currently preparing to defend the WBA featherweight title against TJ Doheny in Liverpool on March 15 [Ball won by stoppage – Ed] and coach Paul Stevenson spelled out why his fighter has a chance of slaying ‘The Monster.’
He said: “Everyone who has fought Inoue so far has shown him tons of respect and Nick won’t do that. He will be straight on him and he will be too big, too aggressive and too fast for him.”
Stevenson sees the fight as a real possibility given that Inoue has signed a contract with Turki Alalshikh and His Excellency is a fan of Ball’s after staging his world-title fights against Rey Vargas and Raymond Ford on Riyadh Season shows in Saudi Arabia.
Stevenson added: “I don’t think people see Nick’s technical ability and how clever he is. They think they see things [flaws in Ball’s boxing] and when they are in there with him it’s a different story.”
