KEVIN McBride's professional boxing career is back on course after a break of some 14 months and he is to travel to the United States to put himself under the guidance of one of the most experienced trainers in the game - Richie Giachetti. McBride's next fight is scheduled for Hull on November 6th.
McBride, from Clones, has had 17 professional bouts with 16 wins and a draw to his credit. Among his wins are 13 knockouts. This is regarded by Giachetti as the kind of a basis from which he can build a challenger for a world title.
Giachetti has an impressive pedigree himself. He has helped to train a whole raft of top class heavyweights, including Mike Tyson, Larry Holmes, Oliver McCall, Ernie Shavers and Buster Douglas.
In Dublin yesterday, he said that McBride had the potential to become a world heavyweight contender under the guidance of promoter Frank Maloney. "I know a little about him at present but he has an impressive record to date with an unbeaten run of 17 bouts. That's the hard part. I will work with him in London for a week this month and then he will be coming to Cleveland to my gym later on.
"There he will get top class sparring against people who have sparred against the top heavyweights in the world. He's white and he's Irish and those are very positive aspects. One thing which we would like to set up would be an Irish heavyweight title bout between Kevin and Peter McNeely here in Dublin," he said.
McBride said that he was delighted to be going back into action as a boxer after a dispute between Frank Maloney and his Clones trainer, Frank Mulligan. "This has been sorted out and Frank Mulligan and myself remain close friends. I will always turn to him for advice but, as far as my boxing career is concerned, I am now attached to Frank Maloney and I look forward to going to train in the US under Richie Giachetti. I regard it as a great opportunity to train with some of the best boxers in the world," he said.
This state of affairs was confirmed by Maloney. "I take my hat off to Frank Mulligan. Maybe I mishandled the situation but I have no doubt that Frank always had the best interests of Kevin at heart."
