Baillie up for challenge in Northern Ireland
Smoking Joe's Josh Baillie has accepted a fight with less than a weeks notice at the SSE arena in Belfast against Marco McCullough. McCullough from Belfast has had 21 fights and has won 17 of them and has won the Irish title, the WBO European and the WBO intercontinental titles. McCullough has also had failed attempts for the commonwealth and in his last match losing via TKO to Ryan Walsh for the British featherweight title.
This 6 rounder will be aired live on Boxnation and BT sport’s with Carl Frampton v Horacio Garcia as the main event. Baillie has not fought since this time last year when he defeated unbeaten boxer Manny Zaber winning a British challenge belt. Baillie has had a frustrating year, ending with Josh training hard for the BCB super series quarter finals against Louis Fielding only for it to be suspended due to the tragic death of a young man at the event the night before. I caught up with Josh at Smoking Joe’s while he was training and asked him about how he felt about taking this fight?. Josh originally from Barrow in Furness now presiding in Tamworth told me “l got the call on Monday to ask me if I wanted to fight, after getting a increase in the weight and the purse I said yes”. I then asked him if less than a week was enough to get ready for this fight, Baillie just smiled and said “Fuck it, I’m always up for it”.
The show will be live on Boxnation and BT sport’s on Saturday 18th November.
Dexter's Thoughts
Really glad to hear Baillie is getting into the ring, after all the hard training he put in for the BCB super series it is great to see him put all that training into practice. Now I have a feeling that McCullough's team are thinking they are going to have a easy night of it, but they could not be more wrong. I train at the same gym as Baillie and see how much graft he puts into his training and I know how determined he is. If Baillie wins this match it will move him up the ranks and should at least secure him a shot at the Midlands area title if not the English. I think McCullough team have taken a big risk here and it may be one they regret, Manny Zaber's team took the same risk with Baillie stopping the unbeaten fighter to win a challenge belt. McCullough has lost 4 times in the past and has been stopped 3 times, one of these coming in his last fight. I know Baillie will bring the fight to him and will not just be turning up for a pay check, the Birmingham Boxing Column wishes Baillie all the best for Saturday and hope he comes home with the win.