Driven Dunne confident he has ‘world class’ Pickering taped
A couple of weeks ago he had two of boxing’s living legends — Sugar Ray Leonard and Barry McGuigan — present when he opened up his training session to the media.
“Obviously I am delighted he came to see me work out,” Dunne said. “He has had a huge influence on my career and the fact that he is still taking such an interest in me is flattering.”
Yesterday Dunne was meeting the media again, only this time it was at the Holy Trinity gym in Belfast where he has been training under Harry Hawkins.
“Esham Pickering is a world class operator,” he said. “I stay focused on that fact. But my main concern is my own performance and how I will perform on the night.
“This is a huge fight for me. You talk about taking another step up the ladder but it is much more than that. This is the most important fight of my career and I am going to win it.
“But it’s also a very important fight for Esham Pickering. His whole future hangs on it and I know he realises the consequences if he does not beat me. It is unfortunate but that is how boxing is.
“Pickering has been all around the block and back again. He has been European champion before. He lost that title to Michael Hunter in controversial circumstances. Hunter did not give him a rematch and obviously that bothers him a lot. He now has an opportunity to reclaim the title and if he can do that then Hunter will have to meet him again somewhere down the line.
“I know how much hangs on this fight for both of us. I intend to win this fight. It was never any other way. I am going in there to win and I am confident that I can win. I know the boxing fans in Dublin will not accept any other result from me.
“At this point all the conditioning work has been done and now we are working on the technical stuff,” Dunne said. “We did not have any problem getting tapes of Pickering’s fights and we are very familiar with his style. But our main focus has been on me and my own style. You can over-analyse and that is not a good thing. Safe to say we know what he is like, his temperament and how he will box.
“We work on my performance and I know that I am not going to be beaten. This fight will take me to another level and that’s what’s important.”
Pickering knows the prize for a win over Dunne and one cannot help thinking that he is looking beyond this fight and that could be a big mistake.
“No offence to Bernard because I think he’s a good fighter and alongside myself and Hunter we’re the best three in Europe,” he said. “But I’m so hungry to get my European title back and I won’t be leaving Dublin without it. I just think I’ll have too much of everything for Bernard on the night.”
And Pickering’s trainer, Dubliner Brendan Ingle, who also trained the likes of Prince Naseem Hamed, Johnny Nelson and Junior Witter to world titles, insisted that while he always likes to return to Dublin, this will be strictly a business trip.
“I know I’m coming to Dublin with Esham to beat another Dubliner but this is a business and you’ve always got to look at it from that point of view,” he said.
“I am going over there with Esham to win. If Dunne wins then I’ll take my hat off to him but I’ll tell you that either way it is going to be some fight.”
The sell-out has taken the revival of Irish professional boxing to a new level and yesterday Dunne’s Manager/Promoter, Brian Peters, was still inundated with enquiries.
“I even had a call from Stephen Hendry today looking for tickets and I could not accommodate him,” he said. “I believe this is a golden moment in professional boxing in Ireland comparable with the McGuigan era and we would have to go back to the Collins/Eubank fights to find the same interest.”
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