Macklin keeps focus on Pintos

MATTHEW ‘Mack the Knife’ Macklin has big plans for next year but the European and British middleweight champion knows they will be meaningless unless he beats Uruguayan light-middleweight champ, Rafael Sosa Pintos, when they headline the televised Sierra Fight Night at the National Stadium tonight.

Macklin, a Birmingham-born Irishman whose parents hail from Tipperary and Roscommon, hardly broke a sweat in his last two fights when it took him less than 10 minutes in total to win both the British and European titles. That makes him overwhelming favourite tonight but Pintos could be a potential banana skin.

Macklin has an impressive record of 25 wins – 18 by way of knockout – and one of just two losses was in that “fight of the year” with Jamie Moore. Pintos has been around the rings and has 34 wins with four losses – two of those losses by KO.