Sean McGoldrick is confident heading into the second leg of the British Lionhearts’ World Series of Boxing quarter-final against the Mexico Guerreros but he’s being warned about being too brash.
The 21-year-old Commonwealth champion has fought four times in Britain’s debut season in the Series with all four of his contests coming in away fixtures and his fifth no different.
However bantamweight McGoldrick has more than held his own on the road and arrived in Mexico City to face the Guerreros having won three and lost one of his four bouts so far.
In Mexico he will face an undefeated opponent this season in Elias Emigdio in the first fight of the night with Britain needing just two wins to reach the semi-finals after winning the home leg 4-1.
And McGoldrick is relishing the bout with Emigdio, who has won five from five this season. He said: “I feel fit and strong. I am excited about this fight as Emigdio is one of the best boxers in WSB.”
Sam Maxwell will fight Juan Romero in the second contest on Friday night hoping to bounce back from a second narrow loss of the season to Ukrainian double Olympic champion Vasyl Lomachenko.
After that lightweight contest middleweight Kaupo Arro will fight Marvin Cabrera before Lionhearts teammate Babacar Kamara faces Isaac Munoz in the light heavyweight bout.
Uaine Fa will then tackle Gerardo Miguel Bisbal in the final heavyweight contest and, if the scores are level after the ten bouts across the two legs, a tiebreaker will take place.
Lawrence Osueke, who made his Series debut in Germany last month, will fight Francisco Ortega in case of a draw and Lionhearts general manager Matt Archibald is anticipating a tight round.
“The team has been in Mexico City for over a week now in a bid to acclimatise however there is no doubt that boxing at nearly 8,000 feet is going to make this an extremely tough assignment for the Lionhearts,” said Archibald.
“The boxers that competed in the home leg did very well to give the team a good lead but as we have seen throughout the competition, the away matches are very tough in the World Series of Boxing so there is still a long way to go in this tie.”
© Sportsbeat 2013