EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW
A lot of Irish fighters head Stateside to get their
boxing career started, most notably Steve
Collins, Wayne McCullough and Bernard
Dunne, but it is very rare to see an Irish
Champion leave Ireland to pursue his dream of
becoming a World Champion.
That’s exactly what Ireland’s very own Patrick “The
Punisher” Hyland has done. He has signed a
contract with team Snookie and is been trained by
former World Champion Tracy Patterson.
It’s a brave move by Patrick but one that seems to
have worked out nicely so far.
KO Monthly caught up with Patrick on a recent trip
home to talk to him about his move to America and
also what the future has in store for him.
KO: Patrick, for most of your career you were
based here in Dublin, so why did you decide to
make the move to America?
Patrick: For my first two years as a professional I
was based in England, came back to Ireland and
was enjoying boxing in Ireland but the fights dried
up and there was no professional shows been held.
Team Snookie offered me a nice contract to base
myself in America, where all the big fights happen,
so I jumped at the opportunity.
KO: You’re a professional since 2004, how
many more years do you feel you have left as a
professional?
Patrick: Well at the level I am at now, I feel I am at
the top of my game. I think I have three to four
years left.
KO: What do you hope to achieve in that time?
Patrick: What I have dreamed of since I put on a
pair of gloves, that’s to be the World Champion. My
drive has never changed and it won’t until I have
become World Champion.
KO: You fought in the MGM Grand Hotel in Las
Vegas, where you boxed Javier Fortuna for an
Interim World Title, do you feel you could of
worked harder in that fight .
(Thrown more punches)?
Patrick: I have watched the fight once and I don’t
want to watch it again because I know what I done
wrong. My game plan worked to perfection, we
trained 12 weeks for the fight, we had a great game
plan to take him into the later rounds. I done that,
looking back I could have thrown more punches in
certain situations, but then again I was looking at it
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