Junior welterweight contender Jack Rafferty pledged to return to the gym on Monday having stopped Reece MacMillan in seven rounds in Manchester last night.
Rafferty, the British and Commonwealth champion, is part of a bustling division and turned away MacMillan’s challenge at the Co-op Live Arena, which is just eight miles from his home and a mile away from the apartment he lives in while in camp.
“I worked hard for these. I’ve been on the big stage twice, done 23 fights on the small hall shows, that’s hard work, that,” Rafferty told Queensberry’s YouTube channel. “Paying for opponents, not earning a penny. I’ve only earned a penny for these last two fights. It’s been hard, but I’ve made all these sacrifices worthwhile.”
Boxing on the undercard of Derek Chisora-Otto Wallin, in front of his own fans, the 29-year-old Rafferty, who improved to 25-0 (16 KOs), said: “It’s unbelievable. I train unbelievably hard to get these rewards. They are hard, gruelling camps. You’ve got to make these sacrifices. It’s all forgotten that you miss your friends’ birthdays, not being at home in the big bed with the missus, and you’ve got to make them worthwhile. I made them worthwhile tonight, all the hard times.”
Domestically, Rafferty is emerging in a division that has Jack Catterall, Dalton Smith and Adam Azim as its leaders in the UK market.
“That top five to 10 in Britain, that top 15 in the world, what an unbelievable scene to be a part of,” he said.
Read the full article here
