Dave ‘Rocky’ Ryan goes toe to toe with Josh ‘The tartan tornado’ Taylor on Friday, October 21st in Edinburgh, Scotland. This will be Dave’s 27th professional bout boasting huge experience against Taylor in only his 7th fight, for Rocky it all started when he was seven years of age joining his uncle Lee train at Merlin youth ABC, it only took a couple of years before he knew he wanted to punch for pay and he was confident in his ability even from a young age and after a successful amateur career Rocky’s debut came in March 2007, and since then he has racked up 17 wins and suffered 9 losses.
‘Trainings going perfect and everything’s on track. I have just come home from a two week camp in Portugal which was interesting to say the least, hard work but yeah definitely needed so I got that in the bank so yeah I’m on form at the minute.’ Dave tells me.
It’s refreshing to see a 6-0 fighter in Josh want to face an opponent with Dave’s calibre when he could have fought another journeyman. Having beat John Wayne Hibbert and Tyrone Nurse in his last two wins how does it differ from preparing for a fight against them to a somewhat unknown quantity in Taylor? Dave responded ‘Nothing with the training, its all the same. In regards to the unknown quantity he (Taylor) has been bigged up to being the next big rising superstar and I believe that he will get to the top at one point but its way to soon for him to be chucked in there with someone like me so early in his career, in all of his seven fights he has fought opponents who are there just to get beat basically and well I’m not going there to lose I’m going there to win so this will be a completely different story.’
Dave was due to face Martin Haiklali in Leeds but due to Haiklali having an infected wound that hadn’t been found before hand which lead to the decision that the fight had to be cancelled just minutes before the scheduled bout. What was that like to not be able to fight when you are ready mentally and physically due to such uncommon circumstances? ‘Oh well, its unbelievable, I have never known of anyone in the boxing world to get that close to a fight and still not go ahead with it, it was literally 20 minutes before I was due to get in the ring. I was bandaged up, gloves on, I was on the pads warming up and then next thing I know the doctor had called it off because he had an infected cut on his arm it was found as he was getting bandaged up, why the didn’t find it the day before was because he missed weight by like a pound and by the time he done his second weigh in the doctors had gone so they only found it 20 minutes before the fight which was heart-breaking to say the least. Its just one of those things, you just have to get on with it, its behind me now that is and its on to the next one.’
Last time out losing to his rival in the final instalment of their trilogy against John Wayne Hibbert in the tenth round in controversial circumstances when Dave was ahead in the scorecards, ‘That was a low point that was. It was a kidney punch, I remember being in the ring when it happened, I said to the ref “He’s just punched me in the back!” and the ref knew something was up then said to carry on fighting, like how the hell can I carry on fighting after he just punched me in the kidney, my kidney had all swelled up and then it was trapping a nerve, giving me muscle spasms in me back how am I meant to carry on fighting? I mean I would fight through anything but I couldn’t even function properly, the whole side of my body I couldn’t lift me right arm up, I couldn’t move me right leg. It wasn’t intentionally meant to be a kidney punch, as I crouched up after a hook he slipped under and threw a left hook, its just one of those things, he caught me in the kidneys the rest is history.’
Ohara Davies called Rocky out previously a few times, in an interview with Sky sports Ohara revealed his manager Eddie Hearn wasn’t 100% sure he would beat Rocky. Ohara responded by saying he has it in him to retire Rocky. ‘Yeah definitely I would fight him any day of the week! He’s a young pup isn’t he and full of confidence I would love to shut him up basically. I will get rid of this Josh Taylor in a couple of weeks and who knows maybe Ohara Davies can be the next one that tastes defeat as well.’
With the fight being in Scotland Dave will be classed as the ‘away’ fighter in this bout but that does not faze him one bit.’Yeah I think it affects every fighter in different ways where it could affect people fighting at home like Josh Taylor with all the pressure on him basically and less pressure is on me but it could be different for other people. For me fighting away doesn’t faze me one little bit, I have been the away fighter in pretty much most of my fights like I say it doesn’t bother me at all. all the pressure is on him in this fight, he’s the next superstar, he’s fighting in his hometown and I’m just going to come along and spoil the party.’
Cyclones promotions will air this fight live on channel 5 and it is great to see boxing back on terrestrial TV.
Interviewed and written by James Lupton. Follow James on Twitter @Round_Eight
